The Crafty Princess Diaries

Tammy Powley’s Crafty Weblog

January 6, 2009
by Tammy
7 Comments

Tweaking Your Craft

The other day, I decided to whip up some quick earrings to wear this next week at school. Like most school kids, I have a few new outfits, so they deserved new jewelry. Even though I know how to wire wrap briolette beads, I found myself tweaking and experimenting with my tried and true technique as I started to make the earrings. What if I did “this”? What if I did “that”? Of course, this meant I spent more time making the earrings than I had originally anticipated. And my experimentation didn’t really yield anything new because I finally just used my old technique to make them.

I seem to be always tweaking my work, even my school work. During my holiday vacation, I spent a good two days messing around with a class I have taught for years, but of course, I started with that “what if…” thought processes and from there just went crazy changing all kinds of writing assignments, reading requirements, and so on. At one point, I thought I needed to have my head examined because I was spending all my vacation time messing with a course that worked fine “as is,” but I wanted something different, possibly something better.

Eventually, I came up with a course that I think is pretty interesting and that I’m excited about teaching it. Plus if my changes work out, all my work can be used over and over again until I get the next “tweaking bug” and have the urge to change it all yet again. Hopefully, that won’t happen for awhile though!

But all this tweaking I think is just part of the creative process that those who enjoy the process can’t help but be tempted by. Sometimes it can be a real pain in the you-know-what, but other times, we are rewarded for our efforts with innovative ideas that excite us and possible others. So, I think all this tweaking is worth the effort after all.

Are you a tweaker or a if it ain’t broke don’t fix it type?

January 4, 2009
by Tammy
0 comments

Craft Organization All the Rage

As you know, I have been getting myself organized, and I guess this topic is one that comes up around this time every year. I am not alone in my quest for getting my act together so that I can get more jewelry making and crafting done and spend less time running around looking for supplies that I know I have or a tool that was left in another room.

So far this past week, I have received my usual list of newsletters from various social networks, magazine sites, and other related craft sites like Etsy, and they all had something related to organizing craft work areas.

After publishing a blog post here about my organizational efforts and getting all these other newsletters, I figured it was time for me to write something more detailed about what I’m doing as I organize my own studio/office space. I can see myself adding to this article down the road, but right now, I think I have at least something to add to the conversation: “Jewelry Studio Organization Tips.”

January 2, 2009
by Tammy
0 comments

Link Up to Crafting 01/02/09


Boy, does it feel weird to write 09 instead of 08! Other than feeling a little weird, though, I’m excited about the next year, and it looks like many of my crafty blog friends are as well.

The Impatient Crafter
Need some solid advice about how to do what you love and make money? Madge shares some old advice for a new year.

About Family Crafts
If you are looking for a reason to celebrate, find out what holidays and birthdays are celebrated in the month of January 2009 using this special days calendar.

Craftside- A behind-the-scenes peek at a crafty world
The last week of 2008 at Craftside brings you a mixed media polymer clay design, a sneak peek into the upcoming book Paper Puppet Palooza with a fun egg and bird moving card and a melting Tyvek technique. Happy New Year Crafting!

Crafty Princess Diaries
It’s time to get organized for 2009! The Crafty Princess talks about her own battle with the clutter bug.

Cross Stitch at About.com
Make some stitching resolutions for the coming year using these ideas from Connie G. Barwick to get you started.

Layers Upon Layers
Come and drool over the multi-layered collages of Melinda Asztalos.

Stefanie Girard’s Sweater Surgery
Jackalopes are real and they love being the motif du jour on a needle felted pillow made from recycled wool felted sweaters.

Cathie Filian
Spring brides are getting busy planning all the details of their big day and Cathie Filian has an easy tutorial on making wedding favors.

Aileen’s Musings
Aileen has a great blog giveaway going on. Stop by and answer a question and maybe you’ll be a lucky winner of an issue of an Altered Arts Magazine!

January 1, 2009
by Tammy
3 Comments

New Year, New Jewelry Workbench!

Yes, I got a major project crossed off my list yesterday! I can now see the top of my workbench! My cats have also decided that they like the extra space. Here’s Silty, “the girl cat,” ready to help me make some jewelry today.

In between petting cats and making a necklace and pair of earrings I have designed in my head, I’ll plan to pretty much chill out for the day and eat lots of black-eyed peas for luck. Check out this steaming pot we have ready to go.

December 31, 2008
by Tammy
2 Comments

Organizing My New Year

I’ve been away for a few days from the blog working on school stuff. I know. I know. I’m supposed to be on vacation, which is exactly what was going through my head as I was working, but I decided to revamp and reorganize one of my classes for next semester. It’s a composition class I’ve taught for years, and while I do change things now and then, I hadn’t done a total reworking of it in some time. It’s not that things weren’t working, but I get bored doing the same thing semester after semester. I can’t help myself. I’m basically done except for some very minor items, so today I’m turning my reorganization bug towards my office/studio. It is to the point that I really can’t make any jewelry because there’s just crap everywhere! How that happens I have yet to figure out, but it does.

This past summer I started migrating most of my supplies into one room rather than have it all over the house, concentrating especially on pulling it out of the family room, which we are now renovating. Because most of the time I write about what I’m making, it just makes sense to have most of my supplies and tools here near my computer rather than having to haul items back and forth constantly. This means going through about 20 years worth of collected craft supplies, and though it is taking me a long time to get through it all, I’m glad I’ve done it. Along with getting organized, at least partially, I have started de-stashing, selling some items on Etsy and giving other items away. In fact, I have a box full of DVDs and videos I have reviewed over the years packed up and plan to get these out to the little something group after the holidays when the post office won’t be so scary.

Here’s one box that I recently packed up from my supplies in the family room. I literally just grabbed items and stuffed them into a big box. Eventually, this box-o-junk will turn into….

Organized and easy to locate supplies filed in plastic boxes with labels to boot! This is at least one area of my office/studio that I’ve managed to get under control. My vision is for the rest of it to look similar to this. But, yes, I’ve got a long way to go. Speaking of which, I better get my figures off the keyboard if I want to see the top of my workbench today!

Here’s wishing all of you a wonderful (organized) 2009!

December 28, 2008
by Tammy
3 Comments

Craft Some Special Snuggles

Doesn’t this cute kitty look snug and secure in his Crochet Snuggle Tubbie? This is just one of the free project ideas offered at the Snuggles Project website for those interested in stitching and then donating blankets and other items like the tubbie pictured to animal shelters. The Snuggles Project is one of a number of projects initiated by Hugs for Homeless Animals, a non-profit group dedicated to helping homeless animals.

What I like about this project, besides the fact that I’m a huge dog and cat lover, is that it is very doable for someone like me. I do give to a few local shelters as far as monetary donations as well as the Human Society, but I’d like to do more without getting over my head as far as time commitments. This way, I can make and donate items on my own schedule.

The organization offers a world-wide shelter directory to help locate shelters in your area, and I was able to find a number that are nearby. Again, this is a plus to me because I really like the idea that I’m helping out in my local area. I know there are charities all over the world, but if I can help on a local level I’d rather do that first.

I’m still planning to work on items for the Linus organization, but I think these are both worthy charities. I think the hardest part will be getting something like this little tubbie out of the house because I can imagine that my own cats would love something like this.

December 27, 2008
by Tammy
2 Comments

Crafting a Room, Switching to Plan B for Flooring

DH and I did some research today concerning our home improvement project. The plan was to check out the flooring company and then onto look at TVs. There is only one dealer withing a billion mile radius of our home that is a marmoleum distributor. I had called the place a few times asking questions, directions to the store, and hours of operation. However, when we showed up today, it was closed even though they were supposed to be open on Saturdays. As we sat there in the parking lot, we noticed the place looks like it originally took up a good chunk of the shopping plaza only it now is housed in one small unit. This gave us an uneasy feeling, and so that along with the fact that this flooring isn’t cheap (around 4 to 8 dollars a square foot) and isn’t exactly easy to purchase made us turn to plan B. What is plan B? Good question!

Whatever our flooring decision is going to be, however, we plan to purchase from a company that we know will be around for awhile and that offers standard materials so we know we can go buy it whenever we are ready to install. Right now, we are considering either Pergo or some kind of tile-type vinyl, and more than likely, we’ll get it from the Home Depot down the road. I know a number of folks who have Pergo and have been very happy with it, and that’s sort of where I’m leaning at this point.

TV shopping was more productive. We stopped by Sam’s and Best Buys. I thought Sam’s would be considerably cheaper, but I was wrong. Some prices were the same, and some were actually a little cheaper at Best Buys. Of course, with Sam’s we could actually pick the TV and bring it home on the same day. Best Buys was out of a lot of merchandise, and we were told they’d have to order the model we were interested in, a 52 inch Samsung LCD.

We collected a lot of good data today, and I wouldn’t be surprised to see that TV in the room way before we even figure out what to do about the floor. It sure was a nice one!

One other issue we discovered today was the alarming number of businesses that seem to be closed. We aren’t big shoppers, and to do any major shopping around here means a trip either to the county north or south of us. Today we headed south, and along US1 we noticed numerous shopping strips that are now empty as well as restaurants, even a Wendy’s, that are boarded up. I guess it’s a sign of the times, which is sad.

December 26, 2008
by Tammy
0 comments

Craft Bloggers Unite 12/26/08

The party is over – for now at least. Though I did make a quick trip to the vet and Michael’s, we are chilling out now for the most part as we eat leftovers and put away gifts. I was surprised to see very few cars on the road during my early morning quick trips, so I’m guessing I’m not the only one who decided to stay home and enjoy crafting and cruising the net today. Many of my blog buddies are also enjoying some down time but still have some interesting posts to offer us today.

The Impatient Crafter
Join Madge for her final free holiday craft project, an idea you can store away for next year!

Cross Stitch at About.com
Stitch Connie’s Cross Stitch Tile Patterns individually, repeat motifs to create a border or bookmark, or collect several charts and create your own sampler.

Layers Upon Layers
Cyndi shares the steps to creating a simple quilt using a vacation photo!

About Family Crafts
Here are 50, simple winter related activities for you to try – everything from simple arts and crafts projects to tasty snacks.

Aileen’s Musings
Aileens shares her tasty pretzel perfect recipe and offers you a treat for New Years-free shipping!


Crafty Princess Diaries
The Crafty Princess is excited about the fact that crochet is becoming more and more popular these days, catching up to knitting finally!

Stefanie Girard’s Sweater Surgery
Check out a GIANT Christmas tree made from the GIANT Spider web, one made from shopping carts and a fun inside peek and interview with Rosemary Hill, author of Elements of Style: Knit + Crochet Jewelry with Wire, Fiber, Felt + Beads.

December 25, 2008
by Tammy
2 Comments

Buroche Burger Pictures

We had some surprising success with the Buroche Burgers, and I took pictures. First, here’s the pot with the meat, cabbage, onions, salt, and pepper. We mad these very peppery because that’s how I remember them and we both love pepper. However, you could use any spices you like, and just make them to your taste. At first there will seem to be a lot of cabbage in the pot, but it cooks down over time.

Now, here is my DH rolling out the dough and cutting it into squares. Yes, there is flour all over the place!

Next you are supposed to add a generous amount of filling in the middle of the dough squares. This dough is pretty hardy, so we discovered that you can really stuff a lot of the filling in them without worrying about any of it leaking out.

At this point, we had a difference of opinion. The original recipe from my aunt says, “Pull up corners and pinch closed.” But, when you do this the dough seemed to have issues with staying closed, and from what I remember, you didn’t see the pinched parts of the dough after they were baked. Instead, the burger would look more like a dinner roll, all round on top. But DH was concerned that if we flipped them the bottoms might not be sturdy enough.

After talking with my mom and sister this morning, who have both made these before, they agreed that you pinch the dough and put that part face down on the sheet when baking, so ours ended being upside down I guess. Our first batch wasn’t all that aesthetically pleasing, but tasted fabulous!

Our next batch looked a little better, and also tasted great! Yum!

I’d love to know where this recipe actually originated from. I googled it, but the only thing that came up was my blog or other people linking to my blog post about Buroche Burgers. According to my mother, my Aunt Alice learned to make these while living in Germany. The name does not sound German to me at all, but of course, we are probably butchering the pronunciation.

If you are daring enough to try this recipe, let me know. We both loved them and even had them for breakfast this morning, an unusual but tasty Christmas breakfast!

December 24, 2008
by Tammy
6 Comments

Buroche Burgers, Dip, & Crafting Some Holiday Snacks

I have to admit that I’m not much of a cook. I pretty much live off of Lean Cuisine. However, I’m very lucky to have married a man who not only enjoys cooking but is actually very good at it, and he often asks me what I’d like for him to cook. Today, we are both home from work, so we decided to do mainly finger foods throughout the day.

Cheesy Spinach and Artichoke Dip (pictured) is from a recipe my sister turned me on to at KraftFoods.com. She made it for a get together we had last weekend, and it was fantastic! She did alter the recipe a little, however, adding in some sour cream along with mayo to help with the consistency a little. We plan to serve this up with some Dorito Scoops and carrot slices. Yum!

The other finger food is a recipe called Buroche Burgers. I pronounce it Ber-aw-chee, and I have no idea where this recipe originated, but it’s been a family favorite for years. In fact, I haven’t had these in years, but my grandmother used to make them now and then. I remember one family reunion at her home in Colorado where she must have made a zillion of these. I’ll try to get a picture of them, but basically, they are sort of like hamburgers with the dough all around the meat. The meat is very spicy and includes onions and cabbage in with the ground meat, which you place precooked inside the dough and bake. Per my Aunt Alice, here’s the recipe:

Buroche Burgers

Dough: 2 pkgs dry yeast
2 cups warm water
½ cup sugar
2 tsp salt
1 egg
¼ cup Mazola oil
6 to 6 ½ cups flour

Dissolve yeast in 2 cups warm water. (I dissolved my yeast in ¼ cup of water first, then added the rest of the water). Add sugar, salt and about half of the flour. Beat w/mixer 2 minutes. IMPORTANT. Then add egg beaten and Mazola oil. BEAT WELL. Work in rest of flour and hands until dough is smooth. Oil top of dough, cover and put in refrigerator for 2 hours or longer if you can’t get to it.

Meantime make filling

1 onion chopped
2 lbs hamburger
1 small head cabbage, shredded fine
salt and lots of pepper and other seasoning

Brown meat and onion in large frying pan. Drain off fat. Put cabbage on meat and stir in. Steam mixture until cabbage is tender.
Roll out part of dough at a time to about 1/3” thickness cut into 4” squares. Pour large spoonful of meat mixture on each square. Pull up corners and pinch closed. Bake on slightly greased cookie sheet at 350 about 20 minutes.

Made 14 large – dough was real sticky before it was refrig – ok though – did add ½ or so more flour

As I said, I have no idea where this originally came from, though my grandmother adapted many of her recipes from an old Betty Crocker book.

Our third and final snack of the day is a dish I could even make, Deviled Eggs with Caviar on top. If you have never tried caviar, then you are missing out, and it is excellent with eggs because they help balance the saltiness of the caviar.

In between all this eating, I plan to continue working on the baby blanket, which is about at the half way mark. I’m now thinking that it might need some kind of trim around it, but we’ll see once I get to the end how I feel. The yarn is so super soft that I’m thinking the blanket could use something to help structure it a little more.

Anywho, I hope you are also planning on a day of food, family, and fun.