A Beautiful Saturday

On Saturday, I was sitting around the house, waiting for it to start raining, like the weather predicted. After an hour or so, I realized that the forecast was probably wrong as usual, and I went outside and started digging up the weeds in the area I plan to garden. It took me like, 4 hours just to clear out a little space. Whew that's hard work!
Most of our backyard is blanketed with little wild flowers. There are thousands of violets, and these little white blooms that smell like honey. I stopped digging for a while and picked a few for a bouquet. It brightens up the kitchen in the Stangl pitcher I bought at the antique show last week in New Hope.
(Psst... do you recognize these flowers in the new header I made for our page?)

xoxo Rachel

Taco Night

It was a dreary day and we were feeling a bit lazy. Rachel had the idea to make tacos for dinner since they require very little cooking. We spent most of the day crafting and watching tv and we took a break to make dinner and eat. We created a really yummy slaw for our tacos with red cabbage, carrots and corn. It would be great as a side dish for a bbq or as a topping on fish or chicken. We put it together on the fly so once we perfect the recipe we will post it here for you to try. We had tacos with a choice of broiled tilapia or browned turkey meat and a whole bunch of add ons like shredded lettuce, tomatoes, peppers, onions, salsa and cheese.

Taco Fixins

We only drank a couple Smirnoff Ices which was pretty mild compared to last week's gallon of sangria. At least we will wake up hang-over free and ready for the week ahead.

As far as crafting goes, Rachel made 14 yo-yo's and I worked on a baby blanket I'm making for a friend to give as a shower gift. Rachel has been making most of the yo-yo's so far but I'm sure I'll get busy with them soon. It's so quick and easy as long as you pay attention to what you are doing. I like crafts like yo-yo's because you can instantly see your progress. Sometimes when I crochet I feel like hours go by and I have so little to show for my time.

We won't have PLC next week because Rachel will be out of town. I hope you don't miss us too much, we'll be sure to write about any adventures that may happen in the meantime!
Kisses
Sandra and Rachel

Broadway Day!

This week, both Sandra and our mother were on their spring breaks from school. They came into New York City on Thursday and stood in line at the TKTS booth to see what show they could get into that night. They picked Gypsie, and met me at 5 when I left work. We went for dinner near Times Square at a restaurant called Havanna Central, and then went to the show. It was really great! Sandra took a bunch of photos to share.

Sandra and our mom went to Macy's

Love their vintage escalators!

Meeting Rachel after work (can you spot me?)

At Havanna Central

Rachel had paella, it came in its own cute kettle!

Cheers! Sangria and mojitos

Waiting in line outside the show

Sandra and me in our seats... we got in trouble for taking photos!

See you tomorrow!

xoxo Rachel and Sandra

4.22.08 - Earth Day

If there was one single thing I could pin down as the worst part of working in an office, I'd say that it's not being able to get outside on days like today. I'm willing to bet that 99% of the working population would agree with me. Today on my lunch break I walked over to Bryant Park to try to catch some fresh air, and it was packed with people enjoying the sun. I sat for a while and made a few yo-yos.

xo Rachel

4.20.08 - Sangria night and Yo-Yo's

Hello everyone! Happy Sunday!
Today we decided to make a big pitcher of sangria, and the rest of our dinner stemmed from there; we had quesadillas and refried beans to eat.

Here's our menu for the day:

Fruity Sangria (from Summer Cocktails Cookbook)
Refried Beans
Spinach, Mushroom, Goat Cheese, and Pear quesadillas
Chorizo, Pepper, Onion, and Cheddar quesadillas
Strawberry Galette

Fruit for the sangria

Rachel takes a sip!

Reflecting on our fun day

Sangria Sisters

Making dough for the galette

Getting ready to make yo-yos

Our first yo-yo's ever... they're so easy!

We wish we had more time to write about our day, but Rachel has to drive home now. Our yo-yo quilt is our new work-in-progress so we'll be posting about it a lot in the next few weeks. We'll have more surprises for you in the next few days, so check back soon.

xoxo
Sandra and Rachel

4.19.08 - New Hope Field Trip

Wow, we had a really great weekend here at Potluck Crafters. By chance on Friday I read about an antique show in New Hope, PA which is a really cute little town just over the New Jersey border into Pensylvania. Sandra and I got an early start with our mom and we headed out there to see the show. I picked up two mismatched (but adorable) small Stangl pitchers. Then we spent the rest of the day walking around New Hope, we had lunch and ice cream and did a little shopping. Then you cross over the Delaware river on a bridge into Lambertville, NJ, which is another equally charming town to stroll around. The weather was gorgeous and there were so many happy people out enjoying the day. We got home around 6 pm and Sandra left, but our mom and I went out for a round of Bingo at a near by church... top prize is $1,000! I didn't win this time (or ever... I have no luck at bingo) but it's always fun anyway.

Sandra sniffs soy candles




At the Buck's County Play House

Geese enjoy the nice weather too!

Look! My initials on a pretty painted house

Stopped for an ice cream treat (Hi mom!)

On the way home, we stopped at a craft store for yarn. Sandra is working on a new baby blanket.

Losing bingo boards as far as the eye can see

Little bit-o-craft 4.18.08

I just was sitting here at work and realized that I'm surrounded by a super easy craft to share with you. Because practically living in a dim little cubicle is kind of sad, I whipped up these thumb tacks to brighten up my space. All I did was hot glue some extra buttons onto thumb tacks, and used them to hang up work stuff on my upholstered bulletin board walls. It's appropriate, too, since I work for a coat company and have buttons on my mind for half the day.

The picture is a little dark, I took it with my phone and it's not exactly well lit in here. See you all on Sunday! We're planing more cooking and fun.
xo Rachel

First Potluck Crafters Dinner 4.13.08

Hi! Welcome to Potluck Crafters! We're two sisters, Sandra and Rachel.

We spent the day setting up our new blog. How do you like it? We also planned our menu for tonight, grocery shopped, and started cooking.

Sandra and I live in different towns, but we can always look forward to being together on Sundays. We've been having Sunday Family Dinners for more than one year now, and they're so much fun! We get together on Sundays and spend the day cooking, eating, chatting, drinking wine, laughing and catching up with each other. After a while, the rest of our family wanted to join in on the fun, so occasionally they'll join us and you'll meet them here too.

We also really like to craft things, and always dreamed about starting a business some day. We thought it would be a good idea to combine our passions for crafting and cooking, and change Sunday Family Dinners into Pot Luck Crafters. Sandra loves to crochet and spends a lot of time learning new stitches. She's started her own line of baby blankets and accessories and is going to open an Etsy shop soon. We'll link to it here. I like to screen print and make things out of felt. Whatever I make needs to be functional and decorative. It's the best feeling when a person compliments something I have, and I can say, "Thank you! I made this".

Ok so, here's what's on the menu for tonight.
Roasted Salmon with Lemon Pine Nut Relish and Baby Spinach
Creamy Carrot Rice
Strawberry Banana Sherbet
And wine of course!

If you have any favorite recipes or wines, let us know! We're always looking for something new to try. Alright, that's it for now! We have to start on dinner.

Kisses, Sandra and Rachel

Sandra looks up our recipes

Salmon ready for the oven

Rachel makes relish

Sandra finishes the chicken

Here's our dinner! Salmon with relish, creamy carrot rice, and sauteed spinach.

Charlie doesn't like fish, so he gets chicken and loves it

yum!

Strawberry-Banana Sherbet