New Leather Skill

 For Joshua's 30th birthday I wanted to give him something special. I knew he's love a tool roll to fit in Walter for our trip but I was daunted by the size of the project I would be undertaking. After a friend let me know he thought he'd really like one though I decided to go for it. I was afraid of the project because of the size, cost of the leather if I screwed up, and that I'd have to obtain a new skill- leather sewing. The sewing required that I buy quite a few new leather tools and invest some money in the project.

Once we got to the leather store I found the most amazing piece of leather. I can't wait to see it wear and stain and leave ghost shapes of the tools stored in each sleeve. Then the man working there took the time to sit down with me and show me the best technique for sewing. It was so kind of him and I felt so much more confident after that!

The pattern took me the longest, I wanted to customize it to fit his tool needs and make it so it fit in a very specific place in Walter to store. I also wanted to make some pockets to store small items, I love how those turned out.

Luckily I ran into no big hurdles and my fly by the seat of my pants pattern worked out great. He was really excited about it and I love seeing him carry it off when he goes to play with Walter.

Jay Leathergoods

I had the honor of setting up a booth of my leathergoods a few weeks ago. I was in a space with about 15 other makers, free wine and appetizers, and lots of lovely people. It was the first time I've shown off my stuff so I was super excited. Also extraordinarily nervous. I wore the apron my mom made me with pockets to stow money and ordered a credit card payment method, but had no idea if anyone would buy anything. Mostly I was excited to see what people thought and to have a reason to finish all my projects.

The night though went SUPER well! I had lots of customers, coworkers came down, friends came down and took me to drinks after to celebrate. There were tons of people milling about and they said such kind things about my work. It was so cool to see them showing off what they'd bought to other people as the night went on and hearing their comments. I couldn't have asked for it to go better.

Lots of people have asked if I sell online, I haven't quite gotten that fancy yet. I do however have an Instagram @jayleathergoods and an email jayleathergoods@gmail.com that I accept orders through!

Plus my friend's shop, Urban Earth, sells a small selection of my creations :)

French Bulldog Cake

 Ok this may be one of my favorites! I was given French bulldog and lemon flavored so we've got a citrus zested white cake filled with lemon curd and frosted with almond vanilla buttercream and chocolate dogs. I can't stop staring at them. I wish I'd made an extra of the one in sunglasses so I could keep it forever! It's severly unfair that after drawing these little guys and having to look at them that I can't go cuddle an actual puppy!

I have never been so excited to drop a cake off! & super sad I can't snag a piece as this cake as it smelled amazing! Can't get over it - Chocolate French bulldogs!

 

Giant Gingerbread House Project

I was asked by a residential interior designer if I'd be interested in making a gingerbread house replica of his client's house. I honestly wasn't sure if I could do it, I'd never undertaken anything like it before. But I said yes. Thankfully he trusted me and encouraged me and it turned out really neat.

Our kitchen table was overtaken for over a week, I dumped sugar all over the floor multiple times and we ate our dinners on the floor but I'm so proud of it.

 

I started with a cardboard model and then started making gingerbread pieces. I love building models and working with my hands so it was really fun to combine that with my knowledge of architecture and being able to read plans and drawings. I absolutely love how it turned out and I was a little sad to see it leave my table.

 Joshua was beyond supportive and even made me board with mitered corners for it. I think I squealed "look look that is so cute" a million times and he came over and looked and was genuinely interested. I owe him a date night I think :)

It is all edible and the gingerbread is actually quite tasty.
It was delivered yesterday, hope they loved it!

Workshop Night

We got an awesome cloudy rainy Saturday to relax in this weekend. To avoid binge watching and napping for the entire day we schlepped ourselves over to Joshua's work to have a workshop night. We ate thai food in the machine shop, picked a bunch of blackberries near the parking lot, and tinkered with our hobbies until midnight, and of course stopped on the way home to get min chocolate chip ice cream.

 

Joshua worked on his machine hobby (which happens to also be his job)

 

 

& I worked on my leather hobby without having to worry about

all my banging bothering everyone in our building.

 

It was a fabulous, productive evening where both of our creative juices felt tended to :)

An Oberon Clone

 

This past Sunday began with epic plans so to be able to keep up with them all of course we first went to fuel up on donuts, then we laid around on the couch, and then we got to work. Joshua has an Oberon clone he's been researching and we wanted to brew it and then I got a cheese kit that we've been wanting to give a try so homemaker DIY Sunday it was.

 

According to Bell's website their Oberon may be described as: Bell's Oberon is a wheat ale fermented with Bell's signature house ale yeast, mixing a spicy hop character with mildly fruity aromas. The addition of wheat malt lends a smooth mouthfeel, making it a classic summer beer. 

 

Or

 

Oberon the king of fairies as the name is also known.

 

Josh was diligently working on the recipe

he wanted to use and how to vary it to his preference

so once it's bottled I'll post his custom Oberon recipe :)

Cheesemaking Adventurers

 

I bought us a DIY cheese kit about 6 months ago (because it was on super sale of course) and we finally got around to making some. It's similar to this one. We decided to start out with mozzarella and next we have big plans to make ricotta and use my pasta maker to make homemade lasagna noodles mmm. We had a really great time trying to figure out what we were doing. In the end it's not the best texture, a little too tough, but we think it's because we used 1% milk instead of whole and then brought the temperature up a little too high. But since we have 9 more cheeses of supplies left we plan to mold our skills into pro cheese making.

 

got to buy the fancy milk

rigged a thermometer holder and look it's forming curds

cheese curds!

tip toes because we over estimated the size pot needed

cheese salt and molds

we wanted to make one with herbs and a little spice

stretching and mixing the cheese

 

heart molds :)

mmm look at that cheese

 

we're pretty proud

A winter type date night that melded perfectly with our Sunday. The best part is it only takes an hour and then the cheese is best if eaten fresh, no arguments here!

the mess after a full day of beer and cheese making

Gingerbread house Bonanza!

 

This past Friday we had the whole small group over to our place. Now we thought "hey only like 10-12 people will come right?" We were wrong around 20 people invaded our place and it was an amazing candy smooshed people pizza fest. We all made personal pizzas with a toppings table so deep that broccoli was a selection option.

 

Our dining room table was also overflowing with candies. It was almost to excited to choose from. I've never had such a large selection to create from, it rocked! I made a bunch of bags of icing and we all set to work with our graham cracker structural knowledge and built some pretty sweet stuff.

ours had a fire pit with sourpatch kids, gingerbread man
making marshmallows and a snowman with a beret

 

Sadly not all are pictured but they were all great, one was a double decker, a sleigh, ours was a tent campsite, a house complete with hot tub, a-frame houses, elephant shingled house, hobbit doors...
It was loud and merry and sticky!

Our friend Molly made a smiley face pizza, cutest!