I’ve been quiet because I’ve been attacked by the dreaded trifecta of maladies: colds, cough and allergies. Been like this for a week! Ick. Hopefully this is on its way out, and I’m back to blogging soon. Stay healthy out there!

Waiters wait for their cue to serve breakfast for a meeting between President Barack Obama and Prime Minister Vladimir Putin at Putin’s dacha outside Moscow, Russia, July 7, 2009. (Official White House Photo by Pete Souza)

For months now, I’ve been trying to write a blog post about my fascination with presidential china. It would have been perfect as a fourth of July post, but that holiday found me up to my curls in cupcakes and picnic baskets, so it flew by in a blur of fireworks without me getting the time to cobble anything together.

The idea for this post came from discovering these beautiful images from the White House’s official Flickr photostream. Politcal beliefs aside, anyone can appreciate the elegance of these place settings. (Well, that is if you’re as strange as I am.)

Photo credits: Left column—Samantha Appleton; Right column—Pete Souza

Plates intrigue me. For someone who cooks, they’re like the canvas to the “painting” of a good meal. At a restaurant, I take note of the plate my food comes on—any plate, even the ones at Maxwell’s, a tiny café in Culver City we like to brunch in on Sundays, where plain white diner ceramic plates are used.

So as I was going through the stream of photos, my foodie’s sense tingled every time I spied a place setting. The photos made me curious: If the president asked you for a snack of his favorite cheese and crackers, what plate would you serve it on?

Photo credit: Pete Souza

Maybe you political junkies already knew this, but I only recently found out that it’s a time-honored tradition for First Ladies to commission the design and production of china for their respective husbands’ terms. Not all administrations have done so and sometimes use those of the previous one’s, but whenever the new sets come in, they’re used for state dinners and the like. A sample of the set is also showcased in the White House’s China Room. (I’ve never had the desire to see The White House before, but now that I know there’s a room full of PLATES in it, I really want to go! Haha.)

Early White House china that was chipped or broken used to be given away, or auctioned off to raise money for the creation of the next set. Congress later passed a law requiring for all presidential china to be kept or destroyed. In fact, when designs for new dessert plates for the Johnson administration didn’t turn out as well as planned, the White House staff dealt with the situation by smashing the plates against a basement wall painted with caricatures of the president’s assistants!

Michelle Obama has yet to move forward with the present administration’s china patterns. She has many beautiful sets to pick from in the meantime, especially because Laura Bush commissioned both informal and formal china sets during her husband’s terms.

Formal Set—”George W. Bush State China”

Photo credit: Ron Edmonds, Associated Press

Informal set—”Magnolia Residence China,” inspired by a magnolia tree on the White House grounds believed to be the oldest botanical resident on the White House grounds

Photo credit: Ron Edmonds, Associated Press

And these are my favorite plates from previous administrations. (Photos courtesy of Whitehousemuseum.org.)

Clockwise, these plates were from the administrations of: Franklin Pierce, John Quincy Adams, Ronald Reagan and Thomas Jefferson

And so, after going through tons of online resources and researching White House history, I’ve finally written my presidential plates post (alliterate much?)! Did I bore you? Are you snoozing? Haha. I feel that this obsession of mine is highly specialized (read: odd), but I’ve always been fascinated with how much food is a part of a country’s history, and that naturally extends to the story behind the vessels the food was served in. Who knows what kinds of conversations these plates have heard and seen?

I hope your own plates, even if they don’t have the presidential seal emblazoned on them, are filled with good food that inspire great memories every day.

It’s been hot in Los Angeles. Hot. Like. Murder. (Thank you to Bona for coming up with that!) It’s so hot on some days that I imagine this is what Hades must be like. And all I can think about is frozen yogurt or ice cream, or making things to GO with yogurt or ice cream—like this Easy Peach Cobbler! And believe me, it is EASY. Embarrassingly easy. So easy you could make it with a blindfold on while singing  “…millions of peaches, peaches for me…” and jumping up and down on one leg.

(Mitzi, if you’re reading this, it’s THAT easy! Hehe.)

Preheat your oven to 375 degrees.

Pour all the contents of two 16-oz cans of sliced peaches in light syrup into a 9×13 pan.

Sprinkle all of a box of yellow cake mix on top. (These often go on sale for $1 apiece!)

Pat the cake mix down over the peaches.

Dot with ½ cup of butter cut into cubes. Sprinkle with ½ teaspoon cinnamon.

Bake for 45 minutes.

Do I hear a “Yum?”

Enjoy with a scoop of vanilla ice cream. That hot/cold, fruity/creamy symphony sings like summer in your mouth!

I hope your week’s just peachy!

If you ask me what my dreams are, they are plentiful. One of my blog friends from when I first started to write for The Girl With A Curl is Odette, who asks this question on her blog as part of an anniversary of one of her fondest dreams coming true–flying to Ireland to start a life with her (then new) husband.

I don’t want to go on about my many dreams, especially the silly ones (to become a Jedi) or the non-crafty/non-culinary ones (to revisit Rome or dance en pointe again some day). This blog really is about my handcrafted life, and because of this, I’d like to write about what my handcrafted dream is. It is lofty. It is big. It’s the kind of dream that makes my curls run straight. But I will articulate it, because as Filipino writer Tony Perez once said, “If you want something to happen, write about it.”

And so my secret dream, borne of curls and cupcakes, is to open an Etsy shop!

I’d sell gifts that my hands can make: baby quilts, jewelry, totes, wedding veils (my grandma used to make them to earn extra money for the family), children’s clothes—if only I had the time to make all of these, I could distill all of my creative twitchings into a handcrafted Girl With A Curl Line Of Cute And Awesome Things and open that shop I’ve dreamt of for about two years now.

It seems daunting, but I’m working on it. I craft in hope every single say. And when this dream comes true, I’m going to look back at this post and say, “Oh, ye curly girl of little faith.”

May your own dreams be plenty! What is it they say in Tagalog? “Libre ang mangarap.” Dreams are free, after all.

The Renegade Craft Fair this past weekend was equal parts intimidating and inspiring. So much talent, all in one place! The fact that all those screen-printed tees, hundspun yarn, diecut greeting cards, etc., etc. were made with the creative energy of all those crafters bowled me over. I came away inspired to work on my own projects…and came away with some creative loot too! Too bad I won’t be able to post all of them, because some are gifts for friends who read this blog. Can’t give too much away!

One of the funniest things at the fair (aside from these fun fake beards and these oddly awesome felt cuts of meat) was this Postcard Making booth. Someone actually sat in it with a mic and would make bleep-blooping computer sounds whenever people walked by (And say, in a robotic voice: “Bleepblooop. I am a postcard machine. Possibly from the future!”). You’d insert your payment in it, spin the dial for a theme for your card, and it would pop out one for you. I was kinda scared to try it myself, LOL.

For other Tweetpix from the fair itself, my Twitter feed’s right HERE.

Otherwise, here are some of our crafty finds over the weekend.

A clever screen-printed tee for the very patient graphic-designing crafter-in-crime who came to the fair with me and thankfully navigated me around those stalls. I was so overwhelmed I didn’t know right from left. (E: Uhm, we’ve been down this aisle like twice now. J: Huh? No! Wait, really?!?)

Seller: Campfire Goods, site HERE.

Awesome, unique stickers. You never find any about crafty boys, you know!

Seller: Pop + Shorty, site HERE.

And the best finds of them all: charm packs from Superbuzzy! Superbuzzy is a great online source for Japanese fabric. I’m on their site weekly, longing for the cash to burn on some of their whimsical fabric. Luckily for me, they had affordable packs of 30 different 5-inch fabric squares at the fair. Perfect for the kind of baby quilt I just learned to make.

I got the “kitchen” set (cupcakes, mushrooms, fruit, etc.)…

…and the “novelty” set (woodland creatures, silhouettes, dogs, etc.)…

Sigh. I love them so. I kept taking them out and looking at them when I got home. Haha.

Superbuzzy’s awesome site, HERE.

Hope your week’s going well. More curly posts to come!

Let me torture you today with these sticky, sweet, made-from-scratch Cinnamon Sticky Buns that my mom just took out of the oven. Beautiful! This makes me remember how my own forays into bread making started from Mama’s copy of “Beard On Bread” many years ago. Wow, Ma! The Golden Spoon Of Kitchen Awesomeness goes to you! Yum!

I’ll be live Tweeting (is that redundant?) from The Renegade Craft Fair at the California Market Center in Los Angeles this Sunday afternoon, July 12. Will be uploading pics as I navigate those crafty seas. I can’t wait! Follow my craftweeting on my Twitter feed HERE, or you can also click on the blue birdy box above.

The Renegade Craft Fair was featured on the “L.A. At Home blog” on The Los Angeles Times website today, HERE.

Below are ceramic dessert and woodland friends stash boxes by KG + AB, one of the many awesome artists who’ll have booths at the fair.

Photo credit: The Renegade Craft Fair

Have a great, curly weekend, all! Tweet, tweet!

It used to be you had to trek to some place like Seafood City on Vermont for fare like this. But I discovered longganisa, lumpia and (best of all) Magnolia ice cream in a nearby Albertson’s frozen-foods aisle. How very forward-thinking of my local grocer! Oh tocino, how I’ve missed you.

So much to blog about!

Crafty Bit #1: Handmade Nation Showing In LA, August 15-16

I already have my tix and hope to have my book signed by Faythe Levine. It’s going to be at the Silent Movie Theater on Fairfax, and I read that there’s going to be a mini craft fair during the August 15 showings. I’ve been waiting for this since last year! Check your local showings on the Handmade Nation blog, HERE. Get your LA showing tix HERE.

Crafty Bit #2: Renegade Craft Fair in Los Angeles This Weekend! (July 11-12)

We’ll be taking over the entire 13th floor penthouse of the Center, where gorgeous 360-degree views of downtown LA will provide the backdrop for our FREE urban art, craft and DIY extravaganza! We’re so excited, let’s say it one more time: FREE!

Over 200 artists are traveling from all over the country and abroad to participate and sell their handmade goods at Renegade Craft Fair – Los Angeles. From clothing and accessories, to stationary and concert posters, with everything from bath products and ceramics in between – there’s surely something for everyone!

I’m definitely going on one of those two days and am jumping-out-of-my-skin excited. If you’re in Los Angeles and would like to go, lots of info are on the Renegade Craft Fair blog HERE.

Crafty Bit #3: Shameless Self-Promotion

The awesome staff at The Urban Craft Center blogged about the coin-stack quilting class that I took there. Those are my fingers wrestling with the sewing machine, haha! There’s also a photo of me and the quilt I completed in that blog post that you’ll find HERE. I loved every minute during that class, and plan to blog about the experience soon. And big thank you’s all around to the awesome staff at UCC (and to Rhea for the photo above!). I can’t wait to go back for more classes.

Full crafty steam ahead!

Makes you wonder what kind of bowl it’ll be served in. Taken in a housewares store in Chinatown, Los Angeles.

Hello, Lover.

What could be more seductive than the sweet promise of smooth, creamy, dense cheesecake, with a good old-fashioned graham cracker crust, topped with the freshest berries, a homemade strawberry sauce and cream whipped from scratch? Nothing, I think! Like the city named after it, this dessert has me by the heartstrings. This is the only kind of cheesecake I really like. And hence the only kind of cheesecake I make.

This was to celebrate my brother’s girlfriend’s graduation. It bakes for quite a bit—I start checking at 45 minutes—and cools in the oven for at least four hours after I’ve turned it off. The slow cooling in the oven prevents cracks on top of the cake. It’s a cheesecake purist’s dream when eaten on its own.

What even made it more special is that I finally had the chance to use this beautiful handcrafted cake stand and plate made for me by my friend Sara’s dad, a true artisan in every sense. He makes awesome pottery as a hobby in Hawaii—he shapes them, hand-paints the designs himself and glazes them in his own kiln. I casually asked her one day if he’d consider custom-making a cake plate for me, not really being serious about it. She brought back two of different sizes for me after Christmas, one of which had my letter “J” cleverly built into the design. I swear I was speechless. This kind of craftsmanship deserves only the best desserts!

After decorating the top with fresh strawberries and my standard berry syrup (simple sugar + berries = awesome), I thought it needed a little something extra.

I found a bar of white chocolate in the snacks bin at home and found that with a potato peeler, you can make these elegant white chocolate shavings that complete this divine dessert.

Perfect!

Hope you have a sweet weekend, all! It’ll be a long one for us here in the US because of Independence Day, and I’ll be busy cookin’ and craftin’, but I won’t be too much of a stranger this time!

My name is J. and I’m a craft-aholic.

I’m still alive, folks! Just literally buried under fabric, yarn and flour. Sometimes I think I have to stop to blog about (insert latest crafty or culinary obsession here), but then…I don’t. When I’m knee-deep in crochet, or quilting or baking so much that all the days kind of run together in these long, craft-crazed weeks, I don’t want to lose momentum.

But there are posts to be written and blogs to visit, and I have to come up for air some time! And so, I’m jumping back in first with these curly updates on the Creative Swap (organized by Caryn) that I’ve joined.

First off, many MANY thanks to my awesome craft swap partners Fernand and Cyd. I  got this in the mail yesterday, all the way from Japan. Mini heart-shaped Hello Kitty muffin cups (which are just too cute to use), candy, green tea Kitkat and a lovely hand-painted tee done in my favorite color combination of black and pink. Beautiful!

Next are the two projects I did for two swap partners, which went out last week. I hope the recipients get it soon (one of these is a replacement and it had better get there this time!)

Bem’s Quilted Market Tote

Made with fabric I already had on had, lined with muslin. My first tote with a gusset!

Since Bem sews herself, I thought she’d appreciate something sewn as well. Made these in some of her favorite colors, with one panel of brown and pink, and the other panel of orange and yellow. For the many faces of Bem.

Sent with my favorite candy and a Simplicity craft pattern for plush, stuffed animals that she can make for her little one.

Gwen’s “Little Maddie” Doll

Because Gwen had mentioned she wanted a little doll, I found a pattern for one created by craft artist The Black Apple on Martha Stewart’s website. (If you want to try your hand at it, the pattern and cute hand-drawn instructions are HERE.)

Little Maddie was fun to make, though I have to admit her arms and legs made me want to pull my hair out and cry. They were so tiny and my big monster hands just ripped them to pieces when I’d turn them inside out.

I finally gave up and made my own. Crafting=improv. Haha. It turned out ok, yes?

Also sent with candy and a pattern for a cute peasant blouse that Gwen might want to try her hand at.

For more on this swap, Caryn’s blog is over HERE.

All in all, it’s been a couple of crazy, crafty weeks—with more ahead.

Stay tuned for more curly ramblings about:

-    a purist’s baked strawberry cheesecake that I made for a graduation party

-    fabric finds

-   discovering food in modern art

-   my current crocheted afghan work in progress

-   my awesome quilting class with Alissa at The Urban Craft Center (and I’m giving something away, too!)

I hope you’re having an awesome week. May your pots be boilin’ and your hands be busy!