Shop News from Annaliese's Emporium and Life Stuff from Annaliese!

Hey there!

I have a bunch of fun stuff going on with my shop right now! I have been adding new items, one of which are bow tie pasta hair bows, which are buy three get the fourth one free. You pick the color and I'll make 'em for you!

These are great for party favors! I'm actually going to be making some for Miss G's birthday party, which is coming up in the next couple of weeks!

How are my kids getting so old?? Eek! 

Here is a sneak peek at the new dolls that will be in my shop soon! If you follow me on Instagram, you might have seen these:

I love their cute little faces!

They will be in the shop very sooooonnnn!!!

I've been making a few fun Etsy treasuries you might check out, too.

And our family has been really working hard on our yards and garden, and spending as much time outside as possible in this nice spring weather. We have lots of little green sprouts coming up in our starter trays and containers inside and they should be ready to plant outside soon! We're also building a hugelkultur garden and we planted two apple trees! I'm hoping for a mini food forest at our house someday. ^_^

Not a burial mound. A hugel!

Even though we are in the middle of a city, I'm trying to make our backyard a bit of a lush oasis. The privacy fence helps. :) We should soon have some exciting news about our outdoor adventures! 

Lots of fun stuff going on around here. I hope everyone is getting some warmer weather, too!

What's Going On

Hey there. It's been pretty busy over here! Not only have I been working away on shop stuff, but we also have had some major home repairs and projects (hooray for tearing out ceilings of lathe and plaster!...not) and having family time of course. :)

My husband was on tv to play a couple of his new songs and I got to hang out at the station with him. Television stations are very interesting and it was a neat experience. 

I have also worked on some new art pieces and started a new line of hair accessories and brooches! 

"The Master & Margarita" inspired self-portrait.

A few of my new hair clips or brooches...I can turn them into either one!

Husband soundchecking at the tv station.

Me checking out the studio.

Look at us, we're news anchors!
(No, I'm not really that tall. My chair was high and his was low.)

Views around my workshop.

More sights around my workshop.

And for my international homies:

Hear ye, hear ye!

I hope everyone has a great weekend!

Work In Progress: the forever blanket

About a year and a half ago, I started making granny squares and fell in love with a cool little trick that made a granny square with a big fat polka dot in the middle.  "Make a blanket for the couch," I thought to myself; "I'll never get sick of yellow & grey," I thought.

"How long could it *POSSIBLY* take?!"

I took this picture today when I found the bag containing this half-assembled hot mess.  I'm 5 squares short and even shorter on the patience required to stitch all of these squares together, obviously.

I've decided to just go ahead and finish the darn thing up already.  I'll make the remaining squares tonight and start the incredibly boring task of stitching it all up tomorrow.  I need the motivation to complete it because I just found a really cute idea for matching pixel art blankets to make for my nephews this year (but that's another work in progress post for another day).

What are YOU working on?

Home Improvements are Fun

...And I don't mean that sarcastically! I love old houses. I think they have a lot of character and a great feel. We purchased our first home two years ago; a sweet bungalow built in 1917. No, not everything was perfect, but we saw the kitchen, high ceilings, and cat door to the basement, and knew that it was right for our family. Also there was a pot rack hanging above the bar where the big stove was in the kitchen. I think that was the kicker for Husband.

Just off of the kitchen is a sweet little dining nook. It had...potential. As you can see from this picture taken shortly after we moved in (notice the boxes), Husband is quite excited to be cooking breakfast on our new stove. But what I'm actually trying to show you is the dining nook behind him. That wallpaper! Wow. It's like...you know...you're sitting in a garden...

Well it wasn't quite our style. 

Happy Husband

Miss G practicing cello in "the garden"

We could only do so much at once, so a few other repairs came first. Meanwhile I even tried to cover it with maps and such. It wasn't much of a map room.

One weekend Husband was out of town and the kids and I decided to go for it. It was time to tear down all of the wallpaper. Yikes. Well we did it. 

Little helpers

I found that a wet sponge and plastic scraper worked better than anything else we tried, and it actually went fairly smoothly!

The end result is pretty nice, I think. 

Getting ready to eat bo ssam on my birthday

We would eventually like to put in a wooden built-in booth, but this will do just fine until then!

Do you do your own home improvements? I think they can be really fun! 

Clementine Cleaner DIY (with many, MANY pictures)

I've seen plenty of recipes for orange cleaner on the internet for awhile now.  

We've been a clementine family ever since Sullivan was 3 or 4 and could peel it himself so I decided to try my luck with clementine cleaner awhile back.  Citrus is citrus, right?  

Much to my surprise, not only is this stuff amazing on it's own or diluted in a spray bottle with your normal cleaner...

but it completely OWNS those pesky upc stickers on the bottoms of my candle jars.

Even diluted, I spray this on the stickers, wait 30 seconds and they all just peel right off in one piece.  it's crazy good, you guys.  CRAZY. GOOD.

Here's what you need:

Clementines, vinegar & a jar.

seriously, that's it.

I used apple cider vinegar for awhile but I started with white vinegar originally.  

The only difference I've noticed is color and smell but not in the quality of the cleaner.

Step 1:

Peel your clementines.  Put peels in jar, put fruit in mouth.

Cuties is KILLING IT with this sticker.  too cute.

 

Step 2:

Pour vinegar over the peels, almost to the top of the peels.

Ok you caught me, there are 2 different vinegars being poured here.  I finished off my apple cider vinegar about halfway up.  I could have gone out to the store for more but today is the coldest day in Chicago in a very long time, so... no.  I finished off with some rice vinegar I had on hand.  slightly less acidic than most vinegars but it still does the trick.

Step 3:

Set your jar aside.  

Somewhere it's out of the way but still close enough that you can drop more peels in there as you go and add more vinegar.  That's its home for the next 2 weeks.  You might want to hire a metal guard chicken as well, but it's your call.

When your beautiful, bright orange peels look grey and soggy, it's harvest time!

Here I just use a glass measuring cup and hope for the best but feel free to make this process as easy or complicated as you like it to be. 

potato masher? hey, if that's what you're into...

Put the lid back on tightly, make the jar pretty if you like...

but there you go. 

Natural concentrated cleaner and sticky cleanup solution

A purpose for everyday kitchen scraps