Keeping Things Simple...

Summer knits at socksandmittens

2013-05-14T11:25:00.003-07:00

Every spring we are making a small amount of summer knits for our SocksAndMittens shop on Etsy.

Not too much since we are working on our winter assortment at the same time, so just a couple of items right now.

This year we are offering a new lace summer top, knit from white cotton yarn.

This tank is great for wearing on a hot summer day or for the trip to the beach.

It is designed to be short and roomy at the bottom. Very nice and breezy!

We made 2 tanks, one in medium and one in large size.

This item is already available for sale in our shop, so please stop by if you are interested!

The Rose Sampling by Little House Needlework

2013-05-13T07:50:00.000-07:00

My recent cross stitch is finished, the "Rose sampling" by Little House Needlework. It was easy to stitch and I had a great time doing it. I did not frame it yet but I am looking forward to doing this.

I am a big fan of LHN designs. They give me that cozy feeling of home in a rustic cottage. When framed, they looks great on the wall.

So I am always waiting for the new ones to come out.

Spring in the garden

2013-04-29T09:14:00.000-07:00

Springtime in Phoenix is so different. Mornings and nights are nice and cool and the afternoons are hot.

We spend a lot of time in the garden right now trying to prepare it for the hot summer. I planted so much heat resistance plants so I hope we will have some greens through the summer.

I also became obsessed with herbs this spring. We planted some dill, parsley, sage, thyme and oregano. I am freezing or drying the bunches of herbs, adding them to the salads and main dishes and I am thinking about making some herb infused vinegars or oils.

A cup of mint tea is great while I am enjoying my quiet time in the garden.

If you want to make a cup of fresh mint tea just wash some mint leaves and add them to a teapot.

Pour some boiling water over them, cover with lid and a tea pot cozy or a clean towel. Let it sit for about 5 minutes. Pour your fragrant tea in your favorite cup and enjoy!

Insecticide soap for your garden

2013-04-07T08:03:00.000-07:00

If you are a gardener, you probably will recognize this picture:

Aphids. I went to the garden to cut some fresh dill yesterday and found them everywhere. It's like they arrived overnight and got comfortable in our yard.

Luckily I know what to do and it took me just half an hour to get rid of them. I made insecticide soap from vegetable oil, laundry detergent and water, sprayed the plants and I found aphids dead in the late afternoon.

I am going to continue growing the dill I sprayed and use it for the seeds for the next season. I still have some flower beds with herbs which were not infected by the insects. These plants we will be able to use for food.

I'd like to share the recipe of insecticide soap with you. It works great on plants and you can make it any time from your household items. It is also inexpensive compare to the store-bought insecticides and can be organic, depending on what ingredients you are using.

You will need:

1 cup vegetable oil

1 table spoon full of liquid laundry detergent (not concentrated, not citrus based)

Water as needed

1 pint jar, mixing bowl, spray bottle

Mix the first 2 ingredients and pour into in a jar. Now, mix 1 to 2 tea spoons of this mix with 1 cup of tap water. Pour it into a spray bottle.

Use your insecticide in the early morning on a dry non-windy day. Shake the content of your bottle and spray the plants preferably under the leaves of the infected plants. I always get so enthusiastic and I spray the entire plant.

I have used this recipe for over decade now on my roses and tomato plants (now herbs, too!) and it always works for me.

Easter is here

2013-03-31T07:28:00.000-07:00

Happy Easter, everyone!

Pigs in blanket

2013-03-30T07:24:00.004-07:00

Sometimes you just don't know what to cook for a party. In this case I am always making something simple what will please a crowd for sure. Pigs in blanket is one of my favorites, it's easy to make and they are always a hit.

You can make it with purchased puff pastry but I really like to use an yeast dough for them. The easiest way is to buy dinner rolls from your grocery store frozen section, like the Rhodes white dinner rolls. For the dogs I am using cocktail links/ mini sausages from Hillshire Farm.

Open the bag of sausages, drain the liquid and dry each dog with a paper towel. Count how many you have if you don't have this info on your package.

Now, get half the amount of the dinner rolls as you have the number of dogs. Place them in oiled glass dish about 2" apart and cover with the clear film. Wait until your rolls will increase in size (it will take about 5 hours at room temperature).

Prepare the baking sheet and spray it with non-stick spray.

Divide each roll into 2 parts. Make a long strip from each part and wrap it around the mini sausage.

Place them on baking sheet and repeat the process until you are out of dough and sausages.

Bake in a preheated oven at 350'F until golden in color. Serve warm or cold, they are delicious in any way!

An easy outfit for vacation

2013-03-16T19:54:00.001-07:00

The weather is acting really unusual here this year. It was chilly last couple of weeks and all of a sudden we are at 90's! We even broke the 1989 record for the highest temperatures recorded on that date. I was hoping to do some gardening before the summer will hit but it looks like it is already here.

It is so hot during day that I am even thinking about a nice vacation by the sea. I went through a couple of stores and did not find any outfits I would like to bring with me. So I decided to sew a dress by myself and am looking for the nice fabric.

One fabric shop I really like is MangoFarm. It is located in Thailand and you can practically breeze the sweet Thai air when you are looking at the selection of their fabrics.

They are silk and cotton so everything is natural.

The nice thing also is that this is a sarong fabric so you can make a last minute skirt which will not take too much time and will look gorgeous.

Absolutely love this shop!

Free cross stitch design "Happy Easter"

2013-03-09T07:16:00.003-08:00

This is a very easy design to stitch and it looks great on your handmade Easter greeting card. I made it originally for my friends in England but it is so easy to make that I used it more since then.

You can buy a tri-fold card for your stitching or you can make one yourself (see my previous post for step by step instructions).

Enjoy this complimentary chart and please always give us a credit when using it.

I am sure your friends will be happy to hear from you this Easter :)

Easter Fun

2013-03-06T10:41:00.001-08:00

Spring is here with more warm sunshine, birds singing and the first flowers appearing. Easter is early this year (March 31st) so I am already shopping online. I have so many favorites that it is hard to choose from but I would like to share some of my finds with you today.

A very special bouquet of lilies photocard from JudyStalus shop:

Cute miniature bunny sterling silver dangle earrings from KapKaDesign:

Lovely Easter bunnies from TimoHandmade:

The prettiest spring upcycled dress for a girl from kateblossom:

Gentle white flower leather napkin rings from katrinshine:

Fun digital images Easter Bunny Babushka from KartinkaShop:

... and wonderful rabbit gold plated wax seal stamp from BackToZero shop on Etsy:

I love them all!

The inspiration is in the Garden

2013-02-09T10:39:00.000-08:00

This is citrus harvest time here in Phoenix. The tree branches are heavy with juicy fruits and they look just amazing.

As always, I am getting so inspired with garden colors that I am looking for similar colors of yarn for our projects. I have already purchased some in orange hues but we are still waiting for these to come. I already had one in an avocado shade so we made this pair:

These gloves are very soft and made with quality blend of angora and acrylic yarn.

The other pair I called Silver Gray is made from extra fine merino wool & angora yarn. It is still a winter and they remind me of frost on a window!

The holiday rush is over and we have time for some new projects. So there are going to be more listings, more new yarns used and more colors. Please visit our shop for quality knits if you are looking for the great gift for your loved ones or for yourself.

Napoleon cake

2013-02-06T19:44:00.002-08:00

This delicious layered Napoleon cake is very popular in the countries of ex USSR. I am not sure where the name came from. Emperor Napoleon Bonaparte himself probably never heard about this desert. But nevertheless, the cake is delicious and worth the time spent.

There are hundreds of variations out there but I would like to share this recipe my mother used to cook.

It is a little time consuming when you are cooking it from scratch, several hours, but you don't have to make it all in one day.

The cake you will be making is large so be ready to share :)

The ingredients:

For the dough:

1 bottle of light beer, 12 oz

400 gr cold butter (you can use either salted or unsalted. I tried to bake with both and I liked the salted one better)

4 cups all purpose flour

For the custard cream:

4 cups milk

5 large eggs

4 tablespoon flour

2 1/2 cup sugar

1 table spoon vanilla

Step 1. Make the dough.

Add the flour in a mixing bowl, add the butter by cutting it with the knife into flour until you will get an even crumbled texture.

Add the beer and mix it all together. Knead the dough well until smooth.

Divide the dough into 8 even rectangular portions and place in a clean container. Cover with film and place it in refrigerator for at least 1 hour. This part can be made and set overnight.

Step 2. Make the custard crème.

Mix the eggs and sugar in a mixing bowl. Add the flour and mix all together.

Heat the milk in a pan but do not boil. Add small portions of the hot milk to the mixing bowl, stirring as you add it, until it is all added.

Put the blended mixture into a large pot and cook on medium heat, stirring constantly, until it boils. Turn the heat off, add and stir the vanilla into the mix. At this point your custard cream should be nice and smooth but if it is not just use the blender or mixer to make it an even texture. Leave your crème to chill.

Step 3. Bake your cake layers.

Preheat your oven to 400'F. Take out one piece of the dough, and roll it on a floured surface to the rectangular shape. Apply even pressure when rolling and add flour as you go to avoid sticking to the surface. Make it as thin as about 1/8". Poke holes all over it with the fork to avoid air bubbles while baking.

Bake 1st layer until golden. It may take 3 to 7 minutes or longer, depending on oven. While the first one is baking, roll the second portion of dough to the same size rectangular. Take the layer #1 out of oven and arrange it on the flat baking sheet. Bake #2 layer. Continue the same process until you will bake all 8 dough portions. 1 of the layers will be used for crumbled topping so you can bake it a little more to make it crumble easier. Stack 7 layers on top of each other and let them cool.

Crumble the layer you were preparing for the topping. The easiest way to do this is to break it into pieces and place it into large zip lock bag. Zip it and roll with the rolling pin to get large crumbles.

Step 4. Arrange the cake.

Prepare a cutting board large enough to accommodate the layers. Place first layer on the board and generously spread the custard on top. Cover with the second layer and repeat with crème. Continue in the same manner with all 7 layers. Spread the last portion of custard on top of 7 layer. Spread the crumbled layer on top.

To make the cake flat get a piece of foil large enough to cover the top of dessert. Place the foil on crumbled top, then place a large baking sheet on top and add some weight to apply an even pressure on the cake surface. Let it sit for about 4 hours.

When you take the weight off your cake it should be about 1 1/2" to 2" thick. Now you can cut the sides to make it a perfect rectangular. I love to eat the leftover sides, they are the sweetest :)

Slice your cake and store in covered container in refrigerator until ready to serve.

This cake is great for the family events, elegant dinning and of course, for a tea party. Enjoy and please let me know how you like it!

USPS postal rates increase

2013-01-27T07:54:00.000-08:00

The sad news: USPS is increasing the postal rates today. While it will not affect too much for smaller items sent within US it will have a great impact on international shipping.

This is really bad news for many vintage sellers, including us. It is always hard to guess on shipping due to different shipping boxes, the amount of packaging materials involved and of course, the weight and size of an item. The shipping was expensive enough, but now it will jump up even more.

We are not sure yet what is the best way to save on shipping but we are working on it. Thank you for being our loyal customers!

New at Socksandmittens, The fingerless gloves

2013-01-18T07:04:00.000-08:00

If you visited our shop recently you probably noticed that there are some new pairs of gloves listed. They are all made from quality wool & acrylic blend yarn and they are great to use in spring or fall or areas with milder weather.

The multicolored ones are made from imported Italian yarns.

We do not have it any more so these 3 pairs are one of a kind.

The yarn is 70% merino wool and 30% acrylic.

The pair we called Pumpkin is also made from a blended yarn that is 70% wool and 30% acrylic. The uneven thread has that silky feeling and slightly different thickness. This provides a pretty glove texture in this design.

The pair in Persian green is made of chunky blend yarn that is 50% wool and 50% acrylic. Gorgeous color, isn't it?

We always recommend you hand wash your wool or wool blend products in lukewarm water for longer use because it is natural for wool to felt under intensive wash and high temperatures. To dry just lay them flat on a clean towel.

The cold weather attack

2013-01-12T09:03:00.003-08:00

It is really cold today here in Phoenix. I used to live in colder climates but low 20-s are rare for the Valley Of The Sun.

I just checked my garden today and my blooming flowers are frozen. I wish I would have thought about this yesterday when I was covering the tender native plants with fabrics and towels. Well, the damage is done and we'll have to take care of the rest now.

It was sunny yesterday and I was not even thinking that the weather could change that quick. I should have suspected it when I got very cold at the Home And Garden Show yesterday.

I had new cotton knit scarf with me and even thought it was unfinished (we are still working on this design) I wrapped it around my neck and it was a life saver.

The show was so inspiring. I immediately wanted to make some more improvements around the house, organize my space, everything...

I am always fascinated to see how much care and attention people put in their creations to make things work.

The aroma of cooking food was just more that I could take so we stopped for a quick monster lunch. It was completely unhealthy but it warmed us up. No fresh salads for me in this weather.

Have a wonderful weekend, my readers and stay warm. And if you don't feel warm enough please stop by our socksandmittens shop and see if you need any of our hand knit items :)

Front page, front page!

2013-01-04T13:35:00.000-08:00

Our lace fingerless gloves made it to the front page on Etsy today!

... thanks to Oksana from OksanaPiven who included our listing to her treasury.

Thank you, Oksana!

Sweet holidays

2012-12-26T18:42:00.000-08:00

These last several days in between the holidays are so delicious. They are full of sweet desserts and you don't care any more about your diet. Even thought you promised yourself to start a healthier lifestyle tomorrow. Well, 2013 is almost here so why not start that diet & exercise program on January 2nd?

I am still planning to make that delicious holiday cake fromAleksa's blog for New Year eve celebration and for the smooth transaction to a new year the thai sweet rice and mango dessert from Marina's blog, and I am done with sweets. At least, until the other good reason to try a new recipe will come alone :)

Christmas wishes

2012-12-24T06:45:00.001-08:00

The gift of love.
The gift of peace.
The gift of happiness.
May all these be yours at Christmas.

Have a wonderful Christmas, everyone!

Christmas butter cookies

2012-12-23T07:42:00.001-08:00

These cookies are so simple but taste so good. They remind me of shortbread cookies and perfect for the Christmas party.

How to make them:

1 cup butter at room temperature

1/2 cup sugar
2 tea spoon vanilla
2 cups flour
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 cup chopped hazelnuts

Powdered sugar for dusting

Cream butter and sugar. Add vanilla, flour and salt. Fold in nuts. Knead a dough to make it smooth. Place the dough ball in refrigerator for 2 hours.

Preheat your oven to 350'F. Line the baking sheet with foil. If your dough is too hard cut it with knife to form a strips and then cut it to even pieces. Roll the pieces into balls about the same size and place on ungreased foil about 1" apart.

Bake at 350'F for about 15 minutes or until golden brown on the bottom. Let them cool completely and dust them with the powdered sugar.

Enjoy and have fun at Christmas!

A drinks for the Holiday

2012-12-21T10:51:00.001-08:00

I am cooking for the small private dinner party tomorrow and listening to Christmas music. The house is full of holiday aromas and it make me feel so peaceful. I tried to mix some drinks yesterday to see what would be good for the party and I really liked this one made with Pennsylvania Dutch Original Pumpkin Cream liquor I bought at Costco the other day:

You can drink the Pumpkin cream liquor straight but to me it seems to be too a little too sweet. So I pour some liquor over ice and added some 1% milk. I used 3 parts of milk to 1 part of liquor.

It tasted so good and remind me the eggnog. Try it and tell me what you think!

A gift exchange present

2012-12-19T06:48:00.003-08:00

The mysterious package from Israel came in the mail yesterday and I could not wait to bring it home to see what's inside. My husband tried to ask if I want to open the parcel on December, 25th but it was too late. The wrapping paper was flying everywhere :)

What was inside: 2 bars of chocolate, coffee, a cook book of Israel recipes with gorgeous photographs, little menorah figurine, a bar of soap from the Dead Sea, a picturesque New Year card from Jerusalem and absolutely fabulous set of beaded earrings and necklace in shades of blue.

I can not believe how well necklace and earrings suit me. The blue colors are going great with my skin tones and it looks perfect. I am going to wear them to our New Year celebration this year.

I chased away some sweets-loving family members before I was able to take some pictures. When my son finally got a chance to sample them he was surprised because inside one of the chocolates had crystals that popped in your mouth. The piece of chocolate started to explode in his mouth. That was funny :) My son never had a candy like that so it was a really good surprise.

This is an absolutely gorgeous gift from Svetlana Lirigal and it is part of our annual Christmas gift exchange for the Russian Artists Team on Etsy.

Sveta designs beaded jewelry and you can see her wonderful creations in her shop on Etsy. I am looking at my jewelry set and I am loving it. Thank you so much, Sveta, for this wonderful gift!

A gift from a friend

2012-12-15T06:35:00.002-08:00

December is a very busy Month but it is also the sweetest time of all. Time for gifts, pleasant unexpected surprises and cozy nights by the fire place.

Pleasant surprise of this week - a gift from Lana BelleCoccinelle.

It came in a mail last Wednesday and I immediately got into the Christmas spirit :) Inside was a box of chocolates, a card and two cutest linen coasters with dragonflies on them. How sweet!

I love good needlecraft work and these coasters are perfect. Lana specializes in embroidery and sells coasters like these in her shop so I would say her customers are buying a quality product.

They are so pretty and feminine. I am already using it to protect my office desk from my hot coffee cup.

Thank you, Lana, you made my day!

Front Page this morning

2012-12-13T05:48:00.000-08:00

Front Page, Front page, again :) It's our vintage purple bottle today.

The bottles like these stored Kentucky Bourbon and were sold at the Kentucky Derby. Now it can be used as a decanter, a vase or just add it to your bottles collection.

Thank you, imali, for featuring us in your treasury made for Pretty Things Team.

Snowflake cross stitch mini wall decor

2012-12-08T08:40:00.002-08:00

Winter holidays are all about home, family, friends and a great time spent together. The house is becoming brighter with Christmas lights and warmer with the cheerful spirit.

The shops are full of Christmas decorations but your handmade creations are always so special. I don't have too much time in December so I am always trying to make something quick and easy, just in time for the Holidays.

I stitched this little snowflake ornament this year and thought you might like to make it, too.

You will need:

a round ornament frame, 2 1/2" in diameter (I purchased mine at Jo-Ann)

Aida fabric, 28 count, Sand

DMC threads, #3842 and # 3841

14" long silk ribbon, blue or preferred color of your choice

First of all, make your stitching (a free pattern below) and trim to fit the frame.

If you are happy with the color of your frame, leave it like it is. If you would like to make it a bit different then paint your frame to your liking. I made mine copper and add some patina as a special touch.

Frame your stitching, add the ribbon and you are done!

Free cross stitch chart:

Enjoy your Holidays!

A sweet surprise

2012-12-04T05:15:00.003-08:00

Such a sweet surprise this morning! I grab my coffee, opened Etsy and on the front page the first thing I saw was our vintage tea cup!

Royal Albert bone china tea cup and saucer, Pompadour Series.
Made in England

There are many things what can make me happy and this one of them :) So we were featured in black and white treasury made for Russian Artists by Masha Lepun.

Thank you, Masha, for including us to your treasury!

Termites

2012-11-04T07:43:00.003-08:00

We spoke about termites yesterday with one of our team members. I remembered I recently took a picture of their habitats in desert and would like to share it with you:

Now, think of what they can do to your home.

Update on termites: when I noticed the comment by this post left by Melissa I realized that I did not mention that termites are good for the Earth. They do not damage the live plants, they are practically working as a cleaners by removing the dead wood from the face of planet. So everything in nature a special purpose and it works in harmony. The unfortunate thing is that they do not know the difference between the wood in your house and a dead tree on the ground.