where u brew.

Summer is near and that means warm days will be here (in about two months). This time of year always brings lazy days at the beach or park, barbecues, and fun with friends. Last year, some friends and I made a batch of wine at a local business, Gallaghers' Where U Brew. At Where U Brew, people can make wine and cider, but they are known as a place for making beer. They have quite the extensive beer list. This year, about six of us decided to brew a couple batches of beer for the summer.

Below are photos from the brewing process. It was fun! and easy! We made one summer blond called "Cut Your Grass". The other was an 8%-er called The Drunken Monk.

Malt.

Grains.

Gotta keep stirring!

The kettle for brewing.

Everyone pitches in!

Now, stir like mad!

And....Drain.

The "Silver Fox". One of the very helpful, energetic guys running around Gallaghers'.

Two weeks later, we all reconvened at Gallaghers' to bottle our brew. We had two 10 gallon batches of beer to bottle, cap, and separate among us.

Yellow bottle caps for the Cut Your Grass summer blond.

Dan and Emily hard at work!

Absolutely a team effort!

Boxes and boxes of beer.

All said and done, we ended up with about 250 bottles of beer, split between the six of us. I'd say we're all set for the summer!

basket makeover.

I have this basket, see. I'm not sure when or where I acquired it, but it has come to be a regular part of my daily routine. I pack it up each morning with my lunch and various reading materials for class. After work, it usually gets filled with needed items, books, notebooks, etc. and comes with me to class. Then, it gets carried home and emptied out, ready to do it all over again the next day.

Well, in the last few weeks, this basket has really started showing it's age. The handles started fraying and coming apart from the basket, the liner dingy. Just looking a little sad these days.

Sad. Really sad.

So, not wanting to just chuck my beloved basket, I decided to do a basket makeover. Of course I ended up making it more complicated than it needed to be, but everything worked out after some brainstorming with my momma, and some more troubleshooting.

May I present you with..... New and Improved Spring Basket!

-shauna

a much needed update.

I meant to post about all the little projects I've been working on for a while now, including Christmas gifts, however I suppose I've just put it off until now!

First, back in October, my family had a graduation party for my little brother. I supplied some decorations in his school colors.

For the holidays, I tried to make as many gifts as I could. Here are some of the gifts I managed to get photos of!

Gifts I didn't get a chance to take photos of were an apron for Grandma, a few little zippered pouches for friends, and a tote bag for the Guinn Family Handmade Gift Exchange.

I've got a few things in the works now, I'll post as soon as I manage to finish them!

-Shauna

i'm a little teapot.

A few weeks ago, I was entertaining myself at work by perusing this website and happened upon this fabric. "Just look at that toast fabric! That is fantastic!" I said to myself. I then found more fabulous fabric (teapots?! blenders!? mixers?!) that would be a great addition to any twenty-something's kitchen. Also, my roommate loves toast. She even has a t-shirt that says "TOAST." and that has a photo of a piece of toast with butter. So after hmming and haaing I decided I would make some kitchen towels.

I got a four pack of actual kitchen towels from Ikea for the backing. For cheap of course.

And after working through a few hiccups from working with directional fabric for the first time (ie. I didn't get enough fabric for the pattern to be vertical and no one wants toast and teapots flying around sideways on their vertical towels), I started sewing away.

Well this "simple" project turned into a little more than I expected, so I only have one to show you.

Grey stripe. My answer to the directional fabric. Now the teapots fly the right way on both sides.

I sewed some simple grey lines through the fabric to "attach" the fabric to the towels.

Pretty cute, I'd say. Just look at those fun teapots. All saucy with their individuality. More to come soon! (well...hopefully soon...).

shauna.