Top Fives of 2020

Road up Mount Lemmon

We humans are weirdly resilient.

"Dirty P" art by John Carrillo.
“Dirty P” art by John Carrillo.

A few years ago, I wrote (through tears), “Life can be such an off-balance mix of highs and lows, beautiful moments and heartbreaking ones all scrambled together.”

It remains true at the close of this tumultuous, challenging, disorienting – and, yes, often heartbreaking – year. There are points of light, even in dark times.

Dog
Quijote hanging out with me before polling place setup in November.

I asked a few friends to think of some good moments they experienced in 2020 and share them in the form of a top five list of things they did or simply enjoyed.

Their lovely responses (and fun photos!) are below.

 

Handmade clothes and quilts
Craft projects by Kelli.

Kelli Donley Williams: Top 5 Things I Made

These are my top five favorite makes of 2020 – a year that provided ample time for me to be creative.

1. Cornflower Yoke Cardigan from Vintage Baby Knits for my niece, Maxine Eleanor. She was born August 1.

2. No. 1 shirt from designer Sonya Philip. I learned how to sew basic garments this year. I made several of these and lived in them all summer!

3. I participated in Denyse Schmidt’s Proverbial Quilt Along. The quilt reads, “The Darkest Nights Make the Brightest Stars.” I gave it to my eldest niece Alexis, who headed off to college in August and was having a hard time with everything she’d been forced to miss due to the pandemic.

Sweater
Kelli in a sweater she made herself!

4. My best friend Meghann turned 40 in August and asked for a quilt in her colors. This is the most ambitious quilting project I’ve ever completed. My mom quilted the top with her longarm, to make it extra special. The pattern is an Ohio star.

5. I completed Morning Sky sweater in cornflower blue and have enjoyed wearing it. I really like the scalloped edge and the fit. I made it from inexpensive yarn, and it has held up nicely!

 

Healthy meals
Serious meal prep by Christin!

Christin Underwood: Top 5 Ways I Stayed Healthy during 2020

1. Meal prepped weekly to stay on my nutrition

2. Made sure to do at least 3 home workouts a week

3. Made sure to hike weekly for Vitamin D

4. FaceTime and Zoom called my family once a week

5. Journaled and did meditation for mental health

 

Lucrecer Braxton portrait
Lucrecer with some of her many plants, who she plays music and dances with.

Lucrecer Braxton: Top 5 Songs I’ve Been Listening to This Year

1. Diana Gordon, “Woman”

2. Almondmilkhunni feat. Evander Griiim, “Grapefruit”

3. Yung Baby Tate, “That Girl”

4. Maxine Ashley, “Lobster”

5. Koffee, “Toast”

 

Sangeeta and Shanauk got the beet.
2018 photo that I dug up on Sangeeta’s Facebook.

Sangeeta Agarawal: Top Ways I Learnt To Do R+R This Year

1. Call and Zoom friends

2. Walks in nature and meditation retreats

3. Cook fun recipes

4. Clean and decorate house

5. Coloring and calligraphy

6. Reading spiritual books

7. Being in pajamas

8. A little bit of gardening

 

Dog in a tent
Laurel says her dog, Honeybear, is an excellent camper!

Top 5 Things I Enjoyed in Spite of 2020…

• from Laurel Shane:

1. Camping trips

2. Cuddling with my dog

3. Reading Solutions and Other Problems by Allie Brosh

4. DIY projects like sewing masks and making home improvements

5. Rewatching The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh

 

Yosemite
Vesna hiking Half Dome.

• from Vesna Taneva-Miller:

1. I went on my first meditation retreat in Stockbridge, MA a week before everything shut down because of COVID. This was on my 2020 list before 2020 arrived.

2. I went on an epic hike in Yosemite and hiked Half Dome. I was sooo lucky to be invited on this hike as going all the way to the top requires a permit that is given through a lottery system.

Stamps
Two of Vesna’s hand carved stamps.

3. I was able to stay home for 6 weeks when COVID first hit. We did a lot of walks in local parks. I also learned how to edit videos and filmed 3 classes for Skillshare.

4. I planted two fruit trees in my backyard: a fig and a pomegranate. I will always remember that they were planted during COVID year (haha)!

5. I am joining Carve December, and I am determined to carve a stamp a day during this month.

 

Happy campers
Lori camping with family.

• from Lori Meisner Cleland:

1. Socially distanced camping trips with my brother and his family

2. Discovering new (to me) music, like Gregory Porter

3. A slower pace

4. Increased support of and appreciation of small businesses

5. Seeing all the amazing creativity going on as people work to navigate this crazy year together

Food and beverages
Photos from some of the local restaurants Lori supported this year.

Photos that go with the lists are from the respective listmakers.

P.S. Dinah Liebold’s list of gift ideas that was so detailed and timely that it got its own post last week, so be sure to check that out if you haven’t already!

Honeycomb Color Story

Lately, I can’t seem to ignore this charming yellow hue that’s a bit more orangey than mustard and more opaque than just plain honey. I’m calling it “honeycomb.”

You can find this sweet shade on artisan goods, as well as things you can make, wear, or eat.

Nectar in honeycomb. / Tree canopy reflected in fresh nectar. / Photo by Max Westby (CCL).

DREAMWEAVER LIGHT - STARBURST / Lampshade made-to-order by hand by Pop + Scott. / Similar DIY: <a href="https://vintagerevivals.com/diy-rope-wrapped-swag-light">rope-wrapped hanging lamp.</a>

Sol Collection picnic blankets with carrying straps by Nipomo. Hand woven by artisans in Mexico.

Jardin Majorelle, Morocco taken by Kelly Graham, during her 48 hours in Marrakech in 2013.

Peanut Butter Creamed Honey by True Love Honey, Tucson, Arizona.

1. Honeycomb with fresh nectar reflecting the tree canopy. Photo by Max Westby, a beekeeper and honey producer in Burgundy, France. (CCL)

2. Dreamweaver lampshade made-to-order by Pop + Scott, $980. / Similar DIY project: rope-wrapped hanging lamp.

3. Nipomo picnic blanket, rolled up and ready to go, with leather carrying straps, $86. (Shown unfolded in the top/featured image.)

4. Jardin Majorelle, Marrakech, Morocco. Photo by Kelly Graham, taken during a trip in 2013.

5. Peanut Butter Creamed Honey made and bottled (and occasionally overfilled) by True Love Honey, Tucson, Arizona, $30 for 3 jars. / HT Freight Train Coffee (their 4th Ave. neighbor!)

 

Sweet Bee + Floral Wreath: Hand Embroidery Pattern by Emillie Ferris. <a href="https://www.etsy.com/listing/770835199/sweet-bee-floral-wreath-hand-embroidery">Digital Download and tutorial for sale on Etsy</a>.

Ampersand design by Priscyla Falkenburger for Letterpress Brasil.

Aimilios dress by Mara Hoffman, modeled by Adeng. This was one of the items donated to the SPREAD LOVE + SHINE LIGHT auction, which sends 100% of proceeds to delivering critical aid on the Navajo Reservation.

Honeybee tassel earrings handmade in Murrieta, California by Letter and Thread Co. $10.

6. Sweet Bee + Floral Wreath: Embroidery Pattern by Emillie Ferris. Digital download and tutorial available on Etsy, $17.

7. Ampersand design by Priscyla Falkenburger for Letterpress Brasil.

8. Aimilios dress by Mara Hoffman, modeled by Adeng. $395. / HT SPREAD LOVE + SHINE LIGHT auction for aid to the Navajo Reservation.

9. Honeybee tassel earrings handmade in Murrieta, California by Letter and Thread Co, $10.

 

Honey Bear paintings: Coffee Bear by street artist fnnch.

How to add a pocket to an art journal by Craftnomicon.

Bookshelf tees sticker / "Books are a uniquely portable magic." - Stephen King quote on stickers (and t-shirts) by Bookshelf Tees. $3. <a href="https://bookshelftees.com/collections/frontpage/products/books-are-magic">T-shirts</a> $28.

Tips for Choosing the Best Chews for Your Dog.

Pajama pattern/ Pipit Loungewear Set. / Digital PDF Sewing Pattern by CommonStitchStudio, $15.

10. Coffee Bear, part of San Francisco street artist fnnch’s series of Honey Bear paintings.

11. How to add a pocket to an art journal by Craftnomicon.

12. “Books are a uniquely portable magic.” Stephen King quote on stickers (and t-shirts) by Bookshelf Tees.

13. Tips for choosing the best dog chews.

14. Pipit Loungewear Set digital sewing pattern by Common Stitch, $15.

"Cozy Up" art by Ash Elizabeth. / Digital download, $3.

15. “Cozy Up” art by Ash Elizabeth. Digital download, $3.


Photos link to their sources. All images via their respective artists / vendors / creators. 

How to Make Canned Dog Food into Treats

Update: I wrote this when Quijote was on a restricted diet and having a treats he could eat was a game changer! We are now introducing his regular foods back into his diet and will see how he does.


Since we adopted Quijote, he’s had stomach issues on and off that vets couldn’t quite pinpoint the cause of.

After a recent bout, a different vet scanned his history with fresh eyes. She had a theory about acid reflux and pancreatitis and I’m a little fuzzy on the details, but, for the first time, we had a plan.

That’s the good news.

The bad news is that said plan involves at least a few months of exclusively feeding him that expensive vet-prescribed food — there’s a kibble (which he’s not that into) and canned food (which seems to mostly be for making the kibble more palatable).

Quijote looking for treats

And it means all of his treats are currently off the menu. Which is kind of a big deal for him, as well as us. Because, before this, I think our treat game was on point. We had treats for training, for nightly teeth cleaning (his favorites!), for hiding pills, for stuffing into a Kong to keep him distracted when we went out for coffee or over to my parents’ house for dinner… you get the idea.

A week or two into what he must think of as The Great Treat Famine of 2019, I asked the vet for suggestions. She said there’s a way you can actually bake the canned food to give it a more solid, treat-like texture! She was a little fuzzy on the details of how to do it, but I was like “don’t worry. This is definitely a thing the internet has the answer to.”

It had several answers, actually. A lot of them recommended techniques I couldn’t make sense of until I tried them out myself. I used tips from various recipes, especially one I found on Dog Treat Kitchen – plus some trial-and-error.

frozen dog treats made from canned dog food

DIY Dog Food Treats

Method 1: Freeze

Before I get into how to bake treats, I’ll share a shortcut I stumbled on in the process: freezing them.

How to:

You just dollop some treat-size bits of canned food onto parchment paper or into ice cube trays and put it in the freezer.

That’s it.

Ice cube trays

Notes:

  • Quijote has his own designated ice cube tray.
  • Best for at-home treats, since they don’t travel particularly well. (They thaw almost immediately.)
  • Not good for hiding pills.
  • Takes slightly more time to chew up than the baked treats- which is usually a plus.
  • I freeze some in strips that are approximately the size and shape of the dental treats he loves. He doesn’t get as excited, but what we call his “fake dental treats” are still a couple steps above regular food (even though I haven’t added anything).

If you’re looking for something more portable or less cold, read on.

 

Method 2: Bake

To summarize: yes, you can DIY dog treats from canned dog food.

  • Put bits of wet food on a cookie sheet.
  • Bake at 350F/180C for 15 minutes or until they’ve reached your desired consistency.

What Recipes Say + What Works

Because making treats is kind of an off-label use for dog food, it’s not as easy to work with as cookie dough or something meant for baking. So there are all kinds of weird tips that go along with the recipes.


1. The Slide 

Recipes recommend: Slide all the food out of the can in one solid cylinder (like its cranberry sauce at my great grandma’s house on Thanksgiving).

Things I did:

  • Tried unsuccessfully to slide the food out of the top of the can.
  • Used a church key can opener on the bottom of the can, in case that helped. (It didn’t.)
  • Made a big mess.

What worked?

  • Giving up on the sliding-out business!
  • Using a butter knife to dig maybe a third (or so) of the food out of the can at once and then pack it together into kind of a rectangular patty before slicing it up.

 


2. The Slice

Recipes recommend: Slice your cylinder (or patty) of food up with the edge of the lid.

Things I did:

  • Sliced with the edge of the lid.
  • Sliced with a butter knife.
  • Scooped out little dollops with a spoon like it was cookie dough.

What worked?

  • Technically, they all work – but not equally well.
  • Slicing it into little squares with a butter knife was the quickest, cleanest, and easiest way I tried.
  • I didn’t find an advantage to using the lid.
  • My first attempt was the little cookie dollops. The wet food doesn’t hold together or shape very well, though, and I think I ended up with as much stuck to my hands as actually on the baking sheet.

 

3. The Bake
Recipes recommend: Baking for 30 minutes.

Things I did:

  • Used the toaster oven set to “bake,” instead of the full oven.
  • Various baking times.
  • Foil and parchment paper.
  • 350F/180C

What worked?

  • The toaster oven has worked great for the small batches of treats I make!
  • I flip them halfway through with a fork or popsicle stick.
  • 30 minutes seemed like an insanely long bake time for such small treats, but it turns out that’s about right – approximately 15 minutes on each side for small (finger tip size) squares.
  • Bake time will depend on how large you make your treats and how crispy you want them to end up.
  • Using parchment paper for lining the baking sheet. I found the treats would stick to foil, even after being baked.

 

Some tips:

  • Crispy treats seem to last longer outside of the fridge. Softer treats are better to hide pills in.
  • The canned food I’ve been experimenting with is Royal Canin GI Low Fat – other types may give you different results. (If so, please comment and tell me about it!) This is in no way an ad/endorsement/recommendation for that brand. Honestly, the jury is still out on how well it’s working. It’s just what Quijote’s vet wants him eating while we try to narrow down the cause of his tummy troubles.

At the end of the day, you just have to figure out what works best for you and your pup.

15 Holiday Ornaments You Can Make Today!

Gold leaf ornament

A Christmas ornament can trim a tree or grace a garland, be a gift topper or the gift itself.

Here are 15 DIY ornaments, most of which you probably already have the materials for and/or are simple enough to make that even kids can join in!

 

Paper tube ornaments by Stitch Play in AZ

1. Cardboard Tube Ornaments

These super colorful ornaments are made from painted paper towel tubes strung with ribbon and beads! / via Vesna Taneva-Miller

 

gold leaf ornament

2. DIY Gold Leaf Ornaments

Transform clear glass ornaments by swirling colorful paint inside and gluing gold leaf outside. / via The Sweetest Occasion

 

clay owl ornament

3. Quick Clay Owls

These cute ornaments start from a circle of clay that you fold to create the shape of an owl. If you don’t happen to have modeling clay around, Paging Fun Mums has a recipe for making your own with cornstarch, baking soda, and water. / via Paging Fun Mums + 4 Crazy Kings

 

felt tree ornaments

4. Simple Felt Tree Ornament Tutorial

Basically, you just use Handmade Charlotte’s PDF template to cut out felt circles of increasing sizes, stitch up the sides, and stack them up. I can’t decide which I like more: the trees with different colored layers or the ones that are just a single color! / via Handmade Charlotte

 

ornament with braided fabric scraps

5. Upcycled Fabric Ornaments

Braid scraps of fabric to give old ornaments a new look! / via Simply Notable

 

Mason Jar Ring ornament

6. Jar Ring Map

An old map and the ring part of a mason jar lid make a keepsake for remembering a trip or celebrating your hometown. / via Happy Mothering

 

Leather DIY ornaments

7. Modern Leather Ornament

Delia (of Delia Creates) took leftover pieces from a leatherwork project to create this lovely minimal ornament. She mentions that you can substitute grosgrain ribbon for the two smaller (contrasting) strips. / via Delia Creates

 

kusudama ornaments by robayre

8. Kusudama Paper Ornament

While Japanese kusudama balls were traditionally made from real flowers, you can make a paper version by folding origami petals and gluing them together.  Robin (a.k.a. Robayre at Inspiration Junkie) makes a new one every year before Christmas. She has made them from old catalog pages, origami paper, and paper she’s decorated with herself with gelatin prints. / via Inspiration Junkie + Full tutorial at PlanetJune.

 

https://livefreecreative.co/custom-pet-christmas-ornament/

9. Pet Photo Ornament

Make a mini-plush pet ornament with a favorite photo and some iron-on transfer paper. You can use a complementary cotton fabric for the back — check your stash for those random extra pieces! / via Live Free Creative Co

 

woven ornament

10. Woven Cookie Stars

Super easy project using thread wrapped around cardboard! To mix it up, use variegated string or multiple colors. / via Aesthetic Outburst + Full tutorial at The Crafty Crow.

 

Handmade watercolor ornament

11. Watercolor Ornament

You get this watercolor look by dipping the ornament in nail polish and warm water. / via Unexpected Elegance

 

wood burned ornaments

12. Wood Burned Christmas Ornaments

Use a wood burning kit to decorate thin wood slices cut from a tree branch. / via Simply Notable

 

Cinnamon himmeli

13. Cinnamon Stick Himmeli

Gwen McKenzie (for Jojotastic) created this project based on the geometric shape of traditional Finnish himmeli ornaments, except using 12 cinnamon sticks instead of straw. I bet it makes your house smell like the holidays! / via Jojotastic

 

 

hoop ornaments

14. Hoop Ornaments

This is actually a series of 8 different ornaments designed for various people on your gift list — including grandmas, Goths, teachers, and teammates! They make use of small (3-4″) embroidery hoops and require little to no sewing. / via Crafts Unleashed

 

Resolution ornament

15. Resolution Time Capsule

I shared this one in the Violet color stories post, but such a fun idea is worth repeating! You fill a glass bulb with confetti and rolled up pieces of paper with your New Year’s resolutions on them and then, a year later, you can see how things turned out! / via The Crafted Life


Each image links to its source.