Crafting for the Apocalypse

Mission Accomplished?

2009-11-01T08:24:00.004-05:00

You be the judge. I of course couldn't get them to stand still long enough to take good pictures. The other little boy in the jacket over a Spiderman costume is Dallan's friend, Lawrence.

The Aang collar does have the little pie-piece cut out of the front, but she kept turning it sideways.

I even made little webbed feet things to put over Dallan's shoes. You can't see them very well b/c of the bag, but they were velcroed (is that a word?) around his shoes.

The Quest for the Costumes

2009-09-29T20:42:00.006-04:00

It's that time of year again. This year is proving to be stranger than any previous. Recently, we started watching Avatar: The Last Airbender with the kids. Since then, my little girl (yep, the girl) decided she wanted to be Aang for Halloween:

Then there's the boy. At first he said he wanted to be a Chomper. Thankfully, he changed his mind and decided he would rather be Perry the Platypus:

The helicopter is optional.

There's mushrooms in my army...

2009-07-20T20:30:00.004-04:00

My zombie mushroom must have had a coffee bean to be out in the sun....

Building my plant army

2009-07-17T20:16:00.008-04:00

This one looks better in person than in the pictures. It was actually a lot easier than I thought it would be. It was basically a sphere with a sleeve around it. Again, I used a skewer for the stalk. This time rather than wrapping an i-cord around, I made a little 3-row sleeve to stick the skewer in. I think it looks better.

At some point I'm going to get something to mount these things in.

Baking

2009-07-03T20:55:00.005-04:00

It's been an age since I posted but that was partially because it takes us so long to upload photos from our camera. I know, Lame.

However, I've been trying to get back in the swing with baking and experimenting over the last year. Here are 2 successes. Bunny cupcakes for Easter and also for Easter, a different family party, a Honeycomb Pie (thank you, Pie and Pastry Bible).

Cupcakes were easy other than the fiddly bits of decorating. Ice cream cones should have ice cream, not cake. Oddly the reason for doing this was to use up cotton candy that had been purchased by mistake (my mother thought it was cotton puff balls for crafts, not seeing the dietary information on the back). I stuck bits of cotton candy on the bottoms of the cones to serve as tails, unfortunately they got squished and flattened into sweet but ugly discs. I had planned to make ganache ears, but they didn't harden and wouldn't stay where I put them, thus the decorative chocolate doodads I've been saving for a while.

The pie was a challenge but not really. Honey-Apricot chiffon, apricot glaze, crumb crust, chocolate ganache bees on top. It really was divine. The chiffon was great, the glaze a little lumpy as you can see but added a nice tough and the bees were great. I'd use the cookie crust instead of the crumb crust in future; I'm just not a big fan of crumb crusts.

Ready, Set, Plant!!

2009-06-26T08:24:00.006-04:00

Adoxograph and I were chatting the other day, lamenting our shared abundance of yarn coupled with lack of inspiration. I suggested that we have a cooperative project in order to spur each other into action. The most animated of our conversations of late have been about the game Plants vs. Zombies, so she suggested that we crochet plants and zombies from the game.

What an idea! An army of crocheted plants! I love this. This is my first attempt. It is the Chomper, my son's favorite:

I made the head from a Pac-Man pattern that I found. The teeth are the points from the ghosts. My husband says that it looks like an angry Gobstopper.

As you can see, the craft wire proved problematic as a support system, so I resorted to kebob skewers. Ultimately, I would like to get some small pots with maybe some foam or other counter balance to support the plants. There are leaves around the base and in the back, as on the plants in the game. This little plant was much more detailed than it looked at first glance.

Next up, the peashooter:

holy cow!

2009-06-16T21:46:00.001-04:00

The craft blog linked to a recipe of mine today.

Yes, I'm pretty much telling everyone.

also, hey, did anyone notice?

2009-06-08T13:21:00.001-04:00

We've been doing this blog for two YEARS now.

Go us!

Where's that damn muse?

2009-06-08T12:50:00.004-04:00

I have been told I need to revitalize my hobbying strategy. Lately my hobbies have included, in no particular order: advanced worrying, budgeting for the weak willed, feeling guilty for spending money, cooking after cooking, trying not to kill plants, and not finishing hats. Also I have been experimenting with frustration and playing zombie computer games.

Yeah, maybe he's right. But I'm sure you guys can sympathize. I have ideas for things I would like to do, but all of them require Bright Shiny Purchases; right now I can't justify spending for anything new. I have lots of great yarn, but don't feel like knitting or crocheting. I have a scanner, printer, camera, thread, modge podge, awesome aluminum tape, altoids tins, nature, a sewing machine that hates me, a needle punch doohicky, perler beads and the more stuff I put on this list the worse I feel for not doing anything with it and/or feeling like there is a need to buy anything ever. Gah! Rampant vicious consumer guilt cycle! I want little projects, not quite instant gratification but something that I can put down when the pastry cream boils over but still want to pick back up when the strawberry tart is done.

Really, though, I want something that is mine. Something that is more than just copying someone else's project. Something that is immune to the critique of others. I read on someone else's blog recently that cooking professionally is the equivalent of saying I love you to complete strangers every day knowing they will never, ever say it back. What I'm looking for right now is a project that lets me say I love you to MYSELF, because I know I will totally reciprocate.

Know the feeling?

Song-a-Day May: Where the Road Disappears

2009-05-31T21:47:00.004-04:00

I can't believe this is the last day!

To celebrate, we wrote a super emo tune about the lengths of the months.

I feel that it is reasonably likely that, after today's song, Schmitty will no longer need to ask me how many days there are in a given month. Good thing, too, as I always have to do the trick where I count across the tops of my knuckles in order to remember.

Well, except February. That one's pretty easy, other than the whole leap year bit.

The plan going forward is that, while we won't write a song a day every day this month, we'll probably write more songs, and perhaps we'll also revisit and improve some of the things we put together thus far.

It should be neat.

Also: The Schmitty has asked me to apologize to you, the internet, for his, as he puts it, "terrible singing." I don't think it's that bad, but then I might be biased, as I am rather fond of the fellow.

Song-a-Day May: Math is hard

2009-05-30T16:10:00.003-04:00

Gretchen's still in open D tuning, this time piloted by the Schmitty. I played Josie, who remains in standard tuning.

We were trying to think of good fractions and the only one that came to mind was the length in miles of a marathon.

I have soy sauce on my glasses.

I can't believe tomorrow is the last day!

Song-a-Day May: Open D tuning!

2009-05-29T23:42:00.003-04:00

When it comes down to it, as much fun as Song-a-Day has been, we really are trying to learn stuff about how to play and assemble music. Schmitty picked today to teach me about open D tuning. Basically, it's a different way of setting up the relative tones of the strings so that when you strum all the strings, it forms a D major chord. Likewise, holding down all of the strings on the same fret will produce a chord.

This is neat and useful and makes it super easy to play chords...unless you want to play something other than major chords. In that case, you still have to come up with the right finger positions, which is tricky in part because all of the things you learn about how to form minor chords in standard tuning no longer apply.

Serious stuff, people.

Song-a-Day May: The one where the cat helped

2009-05-28T23:01:00.002-04:00

If you listen close, the cat meows twice near the beginning of the song, and then, at the very end, rubs his teeth on the microphone. He's special.

Other than that, the song is actually pretty simple.

(Warning: Schmoopy.)

Song-a-Day May: Self-referential

2009-05-27T21:48:00.004-04:00

I'm starting to think that we've officially jumped the shark owing to the fact that we're all trying to be clever and make references to our own songs in the lyrics of our own songs.

It's kind of terrible.

That said, we had dinner at Endo Sushi in McLean, and it was delicious, and then I made s'mores using the flame of the gas stove to toast the marshmallows. That's not at all relevant to the whole song-a-day paradigm, but, hey, whatever works, right?

I like making music with this Schmitty fellow.

Dee-Ay-Gee. It's kinda been done.

Song-a-Day May: Dinner!

2009-05-26T22:26:00.001-04:00

We had soup for dinner. It was delicious!

Song-a-Day May: Holiday Weekend Edition

2009-05-25T22:26:00.005-04:00

I think we used up the entire quantity of internet available in West Virginia to post Friday's song. Or, in the very least, that is what is suggested by:

the fact that Friday's song never even loaded correctly
the bit where, for all intents and purposes, none of us were able to get even a little dribble of signal for the rest of the weekend

Granted, it's kind of okay, it probably prevented us (well, Jay and I in particular; Schmitty and Jackie tend, on balance, to be a lot more sensible about these sorts of things) from foolishly spending our vacation working. But it did mean a break in posting the songs...but not in recording them! Thus:

On Saturday Schmitty dropped a pick into the body of his guitar while we contemplated the difficulties of making songs
On Sunday, Schmitty was particularly entertaining by the time we got around to recording after a full day of white water rafting
Today we're dehydrated and tired and couldn't keep the cat away from the microphone

I can't believe we have less than a week left!

Song-a-day May: in West Virginia

2009-05-22T22:52:00.004-04:00

Keeping the text to a minimum owing to lack of tubes, but this is a great song, inspired by (and featuring!) Jay and Jackie, introducing you to our holiday weekend in the good ole West V.A.

We're terrible!

Song-a-Day May: Video killed the radio star

2009-05-21T17:28:00.004-04:00

This is a song that the Schmitty and I wrote about the television show, Lost.

Yep!

We have problems!

Song-a-Day May: Anticipation will kill you

2009-05-20T20:05:00.003-04:00

I think the Schmitty and I are both having one of those weeks where, come Tuesday, you're already tired enough to wonder why it isn't Friday. Compound this with a certain amount of work frustration on the part of the boy today, and you end up with today's song.

Secretly, I hope to one day manage at least a few of the interesting strumming patterns that Schmitty manages. I think I am at least getting decent at maneuvering my way around the chords, but, truth be told, I am still pretty terrible at strumming.

Ah well, practice makes perfect.

In other news: check it out, the doc said that Schmitty doesn't have to wear the boot all the time anymore!

Song-a-Day May: Scales

2009-05-19T22:28:00.002-04:00

The scales I am currently pondering are rather different from the ones my sister works with on a day to day basis.

All I Want Is A Room Somewhere

2009-05-19T09:17:00.004-04:00

I am starting to breathe a sigh of relief as my
basement is now complete, and my house is beginning to have some semblance of order. Gaby has moved her bedroom down to the basement, which freed up her room to become my craft room! Right now, it's mostly empty. I have some cute purple curtains to hang up once I repair the curtain rod. It's basically my desk, my sewing machine, and baskets of yarn and fabric.

The best part is that, unlike my makeshift craft room (that was really my dining room), I now have a closet in which to pack away unused supplies, like my scrapbooking materials, and bags of stuffing and batting.

Also, the fact that it is a proper room with a door makes it much easier to keep out these critters:

Song-a-Day May: After the movie

2009-05-18T23:12:00.003-04:00

After seeing I Love You, Man at Arlington Drafthouse, it seemed like a good idea to come home and put together something slow and sad. It was an interesting process, actually, because first we played around with some stuff that could have made its way into a metal song (that must be the result of taking in the movie Anvil! yesterday), and then a few tidbits that were moderately French pop-ish, and then it took approximately 47,000 tries to figure out just the right set of chords to make something that sounded appropriately sad.

It all came together relatively quickly once we figured those out, though.

Well, but for the lengthy singing of "oooo."

You know, I don't know if I would be able to do the whole singing thing were it not for the hours and hours of my life spent playing Rock Band. That little bit of auditory feedback you get on your own voice as part of the game makes it a lot less awful to listen to recordings of yourself.

Song-a-Day May: Jackie's Birthday edition!

2009-05-17T11:25:00.003-04:00

It's our good friend Jackie's (pictured here) birthday today, which is, without a doubt, an incredibly auspicious occasion for the universe as a whole. Her husband, Jay (also a dear friend) asked us to write a song for her. This was both easy (seriously, if you haven't yet met Jackie, you should. She's really wonderful), and very difficult (how on earth can we make a song good enough for Jackie?), but we tried to make the best of it.

Jackie recently started a blog in which she talks about food and restaurants, her dogs, and her efforts to make wine, so we thought it would be fun to make a theme song for her. We toyed with the idea of composing the lyrics entirely from the blog itself, but decided it wouldn't really capture our personal endorsement of same. On Jay's advice, we went with funk as the genre. I think it came out pretty decent, actually!

Obviously not as awesome as its inspiration, but hopefully the song still does a decent job of letting Jackie know we love her.

Happy Birthday, Jackie!!

Song-a-Day May: A tone poem

2009-05-16T23:10:00.004-04:00

As it turns out, Schmitty and I only managed about two hours (well, a bit less than that, actually) of sleep last night, and that all happened between about 5:15AM and 7AM. Given that it's now 11PM, we are feeling awesome!

Truth be told, we had some good chords worked out to use for a song, but then we both became incredibly cranky, and we abandoned that in favor of this.

Hey, at least it's a break from our usual genre(s). And we still only used guitars and our voices!

Seriously, I am so going to bed now.

Song-a-Day May: Morning Edition

2009-05-15T08:58:00.004-04:00

We're double triple booked (half caff with a twist of lime) tonight and I started getting worried that we wouldn't have time to do song-a-day (which would, clearly, be terrible), and so I woke the Schmitty up early so we could get the whole thing sorted out.

Schmitty continues to be fascinated with the idea of exploring all the things we can do with the chords G, C, and D, and he was rather tired as we were going through our usual brainstorming process, so today is another one of those, but with a twist--today, the order in which we played those chords was...wait for it...D, C, G!

Shocking, I know.

The cat helped by providing a topic about which we could sing. And, you know, by sitting there looking judgmental in the way only a cat can.

Song-a-Day May: in which we break down into gigglefits

2009-05-14T22:25:00.003-04:00

Here we are with nachos and a song that included the chords G, C, D, and (though only briefly) F.

Now that the song-a-day is done, Schmitty is beatboxing along to his internal jukebox, which is playing, "Oh Lord won't you buy me a Mercedes-Benz."

It's a good life.

Song-a-Day May: Triskaidekaphobia

2009-05-13T21:11:00.002-04:00

Oh dear lord we were not really in the mood for doing a proper song-a-day today. I'm glad we established the rule that song a day not only doesn't have to be perfect; it doesn't even really have to be good.

That said, I am kinda proud of myself for coming up with a neat chord progression.

Whee!

Song-a-Day May: Sick day

2009-05-12T22:25:00.003-04:00

The best part is that now Schmitty has my plague and we're all gonna die.

I made some soup, though. And we did this thing where we played guitars.

It was awesome. And by awesome I mean it fulfilled the requirements we set forth for Song a Day May.

YES.

I'm going back to curling up on the couch now.

Wake me when it's over.

p.s. We're both sick. THIS MAKES US AWESOME.

Song-a-Day May: 100 days

2009-05-11T20:48:00.003-04:00

Actually, we've only been at this for 11 days, but, really, who is counting?

Come to think of it, I am. Can you believe we're more than a third of the way through this thing? Time flies when you have a head cold, apparently.

It started raining as the Schmitty and I were trying to work out what to play today, and this is what resulted. We were aiming for something sweet and nostalgic--I'm actually pretty pleased with how this one turned out.

Have you ever had that moment where you feel like you're enclosed in a bubble that exists outside of time and space because everything external to your home is surrounded by the visual and auditory filter created by a slow, steady rain?

Maybe that's just me. I am running a fever, after all.

Clicky.

p.s. The Schmitty would like to apologize for using his favorite John Mayer chord.

Song-a-Day May: Electroemopunkitronica for Echo

2009-05-10T14:45:00.004-04:00

In keeping with the emerging tradition of responding to requests, we have made this piece of...something...because Echo requested electroemopunkitronica.

It turns out it is extra fun to make something like this using (almost) entirely acoustic/vocal components. Two acoustic guitars, our voices, and one shout out to technology: a slowed recording of the automatic text-to-speech utility that is built into my macbook's text editor.

I'm actually really glad that I didn't have to sing today. I have some kind of crazy head cold thing that is making me a less-than-stellar performer. I hope it isn't the hamthrax. (kidding. What, too soon?)

Wheee! Happy mother's day!

Song-a-Day May: time constraints

2009-05-09T12:55:00.002-04:00

The house is clean, we are about to run into the city to pick up a friend who is visiting from out of town, and guess I'll just have to put off calling maintenance about the broken sink until tomorrow. This song was brought to you by the chords G, C, and D, and the sentence, "Is this just terrible enough that we can leave it as it is?"

The answer, in our estimation, was yes.

Sorry!

Song-a-Day May: the ocho

2009-05-08T08:32:00.002-04:00

Today is going to be even busier than yesterday, so we're getting Song-a-Day done early.

Schmitty would like to officially apologize to the internets for, as he puts it, "my terrible triplets."

Tomorrow stands to be slightly less overwhelming, at least during the day. And I think we're only triple booked for the evening!

(As an aside, I think Schmitty and I lack the vocal commitment we'd need in order to play punk songs. I'm not so good at yelling.)

Song-a-Day May: A song about ice cream for Lawrie

2009-05-07T23:08:00.003-04:00

This is not always true, but today Song-a-Day was the last thing we did.

Now, you might ask, "what gives? Why assign such a low priority to this artistic pact you have made? If you fail, the only person you will hurt is yourself!"

If faced with such an indictment, all I could do is tell the truth and hope you could see the dilemma I faced. You see, the new Star Trek movie came out today.

It is simply beyond my ken to deny my nerd heritage by not seeing this film on opening night.

Conveniently, the movie (or rather, the social circumstances associated therewith) proved inspirational. Specifically, my friend Lawrie, who kindly joined the Schmitty and I at the movie, provided us with this helpful advice:

"The song can be about ice cream!"

She was totally right! It can!

Song-a-Day May: the one with mojitos

2009-05-06T22:46:00.004-04:00

I took Schmitty to happy hour before we put together today's song a day. I was the designated driver, so I don't know whether this means I should or shouldn't be held responsible for what we came up with.

Really, I am just delighted that the bell on the cat's collar made an appearance.

So fine.

Song-a-Day May: one take

2009-05-05T18:24:00.003-04:00

Seriously, it was a long day, and we are really dead on our feet.

I did manage to ask good questions at work today.

It's okay, we'll just run on the awesomeness of yesterday.

Cheers!

Song-a-Day May: Star Wars Day

2009-05-04T17:44:00.002-04:00

(May the fourth be with you.)

Okay, not going to lie, this one is my favorite so far.

Today's song features the click track (we talk about it so much, we figured we ought to share), keyboard noises from an old-school standardized IBM model M circa 1984 (Schmitty claims this is "the sexiest keyboard of all time"), and a voice mail that I hadn't listened to yet, dated March 17th of this year. I guess I ought to feel terrible about missing the ping-pong tournament.

But I don't.

Enjoy!

Song-a-day May: Triplets?

2009-05-03T21:54:00.003-04:00

Today we experimented with scales and metronomes. Specifically, with a minor scale (I am still learning my scales, so I can't for the life of me recall which version of minor this particular scale would be labeled). The metronome part came in because we noticed how badly we kept up with yesterday's click track, and figured we could use the practice.

Schmitty tried desperately to convince me to add a second track of lead guitar noodling, but I just lacked confidence. You do get to hear the fella on vocals (finally), though.

Onward and upward!

Song-a-Day May: Secondary Infection

2009-05-02T22:13:00.005-04:00

If yesterday and today are any indication, Schmitty and I will need to become far more efficient if we want to succeed in our compose-a-song-every-day-this-month venture. Well, that, or less particular. Regardless of the original cause, the effect is that we spent literally hours each day trying to put together these tunes. HOURS.

Today's endeavor builds on the continued inspiration from yesterday's bottle, though not as an instrument. This time, Schmitty got to thinking about how, back in the day, guitar slides used to be made from the necks of glass bottles like the one we were blowing across yesterday. Thus, today's song incorporates slide guitar on the lead track, as performed by the Schmitty. Day 2 also features a new guitar--you already met Josie and Gretchen yesterday; today we included Riot (short for the Red Riot). Riot is an electric guitar, which meant plugging directly into the computer for recording purposes, which was great except for the resulting super audio leveling win.

I got off easy today; I just played the baseline. Regardless, have a listen!

The idea was something like an old man on a porch noodling on slide guitar, dreaming of better times, pondering the choices he made such that he ended up sweaty and alone with his guitar. Or something.

(I really must apologize once again. But, you know, the point is learning. Maybe by the end of the month we'll manage something mediocre!)

Song-a-Day May: Mayday

2009-05-01T23:06:00.006-04:00

Hi there!

(I'm on my way, I'm making it.)

Okay, not really. And, quite frankly, this isn't, strictly speaking, a post about something crafty. But it is a post about something art-y. I'm hoping you're all willing to accept a little deviation from the norm.

Anyway.

In keeping with the grand tradition of this blog, I once again find myself faced with a task that will likely fall by the wayside unless associated with a certain amount of peer pressure. Specifically, I am trying to teach myself to play guitar. Conveniently, my fella (hereafter referred to as "Schmitty") is also learning to play, which is really neat from a "misery loves company" perspective (truth be told, he is a far better player than I). In an effort to encourage regular practice, the Schmitty and I have decided to implement "Song-a-day May" - this month, we'll compose and record a song every day, and share it with the internets.

Yeah, I know. Why would we do that to you, our friends, on the internets?

I'm figuring this is as good a sign as any that we are complete weirdos. I am learning to be okay with this.

We recorded a brief explanation of Song-a-day May, along with some elaboration about the associated rules. You can listen to that here.

Today's song was inspired by our discovery that blowing across the top of the empty Honey Moon Summer Ale bottle produced a nearly perfect G. It incorporated the following chords: G, A minor, C, G major (4th position), this chord that is basically C moved up two frets, and a chord that Schmitty describes as "A, an octave up, and with the E root note," which could also (apparently) be tabbed as xx5588. Rad. Regardless, you can listen to the song here.

Dear lord, what have we signed ourselves up for? (Besides dangling participles.)

you know how some people just can't pull off elegance?

2009-04-27T20:52:00.002-04:00

I consider myself in that category. Not that I wouldn't want to, mind. I mean, it's a lovely thing to have people walk in to your home and say, "My what an elegant foy-yay and such a fabulous patina on that armoire!" but these people are not going to be swinging by my apartment any time soon. I mean, first of all, apartment. Not exactly Auntie Mame, either. No, I find myself in a place that has white walls and beige carpet, again, with miniblinds, again. At least this one has a few fun details that make it distinct from my last place. Like stairs. But I do not own. I do not even rent to own. I just rent. And that means I know, with absolute certainty, that at some point all of my belongings will be packed up and moved out, and I'll need the place to return to its white and beige self.

People say I could repaint, but who wants to do that when they are moving out? I could put up curtains, but with the exception of my kitchen there are drywall issues involved. No carpets yet, but I know one day I'll be able to tie the room together. Until then, I'll just have to find other ways of adding a bit of color. Like this:It's amazing what you can do with temporary spray mount and old betty crocker recipe cards. And I can look at things like chicken salad in melon rings every day! Inspirational!

No, I haven't been just goofing off...

2009-02-11T12:22:00.002-05:00

I had a shower to go to. I made a duck with matching hat. It also got wrapped nicely with a little hand stamped card. Now, I have to go to work.

Successful hat attempt!

2009-01-31T07:06:00.003-05:00

I tried making this hat for the Nuggie once before, but it came out way too big. Truth be told, it was actually too big for me as well.

This one came out nicely, though:

I must make these

2009-01-14T07:45:00.001-05:00

Apple Hat

Froggy Hat

Panda Hat

1st Dress

2009-01-08T15:50:00.006-05:00

I finished sewing my first dress. It is for Chelsea. The last time I tried to sew clothes was 8 years ago. It was supposed to be a pair of pajama pants (or was it a robe), regardless, it did not go well and I left making clothes for the more sewing machine skilled. What made me decide to give it another college try was I was at Hobby Lobby and saw this adorable fabric and then saw Simplicity patterns were on sale for only 99 cents. Must be fate, right? FYI- Simplicity patterns are 99 cents again :)

The dress has a zipper and a gathered yoke on the front and back. The close-up picture shows the gathering and also the fabric. The pattern on the fabric is a nursery rhyme toile.

Following the directions carefully (I don't think I even read them 8 years ago) it all went pretty easily. I was pleasantly surprised. I added the trim to the arms so that it would match the band on the bottom. I also had to learn how to do a french seam so the inside wouldn't look too horrible. I only wish I had asked Heidi (a master dressmaker) what to do about seams earlier.

Though she isn't smiling in the pictures, Chelsea like it and gave it a "too cute."

Can't wait to make another one.

Busy, busy, busy

2009-01-05T18:26:00.006-05:00

I have done quite a few projects over the holidays. I made 4 scarves for the Moms (i.e. my Mom, Stepmom, Mother-in-law, and Sister). They were inspired by "Mommy" necklaces that have little people as charms. There is one for each child, and the girls have little triangle dresses, while the boys have rectangle or oval shaped bodies. I made the scarves with a Knifty Knitter, and crocheted the tassle children.

The ones for my Mom and Stepmom were the most time-consuming because they have 7 grandchildren - 6 girls and 1 boy each. Lots of little pink triangles. My sister's and MIL's didn't take quite as long as Nique' has 3 kids, and my MIL has 4 grandchildren. Like an idiot, I forgot to take pictures of my Mom's and my MIL's. Here are the ones of my Stepmom's and my sister's, though.

Then, scarves done I decided to knit a present for Adoxograph. I'm not posting a picture here, because I'll let her do that when it arrives. :)

I also made a few letters for little girls' bedroom doors as presents. Once again, the idiot factor kicked in and I forgot to take pictures before I gave the presents. I have the H still, so here is that:

Last,but not least, my little boy spotted me working on a hat, and asked me to make him one as well. I did that yesterday:

This looks interesting

2009-01-05T13:25:00.003-05:00

A way to put our crafting obsessions to use to do some good:
Snuggles Project

New Year

2009-01-03T13:28:00.003-05:00

I had a fantastic day yesterday, getting a tour of some of the better, more interesting and downright perplexing craft supply shops around Portland. I didn't get to have my own yarn spun at Yarnia but I did find some amazing insane old craft magazines at Knittn Kitten (expect vegetable bouquets to appear here in the near future), and some Very Hungry Caterpillar fabric at the Fabric Depot .

That's going to be my kitchen curtains. Seriously, it will be awesome.

But the most inspiring spot was Twisted. I invite all of you to visit me and we'll go there. There are couches, and tea, and wonderful people and they only have one (1!) yarn that has acrylic in it. I couldn't find it. They have patterns all over, books, you can sign up for lessons... and some sock yarn so stunning it made me want to conquer my fear of double pointed needles.

In between my new printer/scanner, my new camera, and the existence of Twisted, I am excited for what I can do this year. But here's the thing. I'm not going to assign myself anything. I'm not going to say now what I will and will not do this year. The only promise I'm going to try and keep is that I will finish the projects I start, in some form or fashion.

I have some old (1902) issues of Good Housekeeping magazine. So many articles and ads on how to keep busy with fabric and paint, home decorating and food. How lucky we are that these things we call "crafts" can be our comfort and solace, inspiration and meditation as they have been for generations before. I wonder if it isn't so much the finished project, but the work itself that is important. After all, how often is it that we keep the work for ourselves? But the time we spend in creation, that is ours, and ours alone.

Save some time for yourself everybody, and fill it with what you love. Happy New Year!

2 Christmas Quilts Finished, screw the 3rd

2008-12-21T22:06:00.005-05:00

I finished my tree quilts today YEAH!!! There was a 3rd winter-themed quilt in the making, but time isn't on my side. Hubby reminded me Friday night he would be gaming all day long, thus sewing machine time was quite limited. Andrea will have to be happy with her Bath and Body Works gift basket.

I am really happy on how they turned out...the pictures don't quite do them justice. I am still trying to figure out the best way to photograph my finished quilts, any suggestions? These guys were just hung to a wall with 2 tacks. Fancy, I know.

I got the pattern online. The pattern was supposed to be for a rag-quilt, not too sure what that even is, but it gave me the information I wanted, specifically how many squares to cut to make a tree. I added the star to make it more festive. The pattern had the tree on a white/daytime background. I decided to make one quilt with that background and the other with blue/nighttime background. I like the darker colored one better. Feels cozier plus the little stars create a nice effect (see close-up).

The darker one also has a nicer/more labor intensive border. I took the same fabric I used for the tree and cut it into strips. Like I said, it is a lot more work, but I think it looks more complete. Though I like the fabric and pattern of the dark one best, the quilting on the light one is my favorite. You can see in the close-up of the dark one I quilted 1/4th inch from the seams. This made the tree flat. On the light one I quilted "in-the-ditch" (aka the seam), resulting in a puffier tree. Speaking on in-the-ditch...this is something I learned making these quilts. Well, I learned, what I thought was in-the-ditch wasn't in the ditch. I also learned how to apply the binding properly and how to sew without the presser foot and feeding teeth on my machine...go me!

These were a joy to make. I can't wait to see my mom's and mother-in-law's faces when they receive them this week.

Halloween Costumes!!

2008-12-19T17:31:00.004-05:00

Okay, so I know this post is a little late, but I thought you might like to see the dinosaur costumes I made the kids for Halloween. Dallan's tail came out really nice, if a bit long.

One quilt down, almost

2008-12-17T11:55:00.005-05:00

OK it has taken me 3 weeks to get this far. Only thing left is for me to apply the binding...yeah!!!!!
I am proud of this pattern, because I came up with it on my own.

I only have 2 more quilts to finish before next Monday. Will the the crafting gods be with me? I hope so. The quilt tops are done at least. The reason for my decrease in productivity is because I have come down with a horrible case of toddleritis. I thought felinitis was bad, but boy do opposable thumbs make a difference and not in a good way.

Skill to aspire to

2008-12-16T08:14:00.006-05:00

My mother made this sweater for my daughter. I'm not sure how much detail you can see in this picture, but it is just amazing. The little pink parts around the edges are actually ruffled. This thing looks like something that you would buy at Children's Place for $40.

More to come later today. My current project...Scarves!

See, this is what happens when you mess around

2008-11-02T20:30:00.005-05:00

Detail from one of our homemade holiday cards. Limited editions, anyone want to buy a set?

Excuse me, I was promised there would be hats.

2008-10-27T12:35:00.003-04:00

So far, since we moved here, I have made seven hats. Yes, seven. Scary, eh? It's good, because I need hats to wear over my hair at work, as opposed to always working the Aunt Jemima/ gang warfare look that is the bandana.

I've never really gotten the hang of bandanas, I have always felt.

Anyway, the small single skein crochet project that is the hat seems to work for me. I was even going to make seasonal ones if I can muster up appropriate yarn. I couldn't get candy corn colors that weren't acrylic (bastards!) but I still have hopes for an election day hat. Guy Fawkes day hat is a little much, though. I even have budget hats! I made this one with yarn from the dollar store and everyone loves it.

I've also started playing with stitch patterns and the like, with some successes and some weirdness. But honestly, for working, this green, floppy organic cotton one is probably my favorite.

It is really difficult to take a picture of yourself wearing a hat.

Too soon?

2008-10-20T10:30:00.004-04:00

I decided that we're going to make our holiday cards this year. By "we" I mean, I get to do all the fun stuff, and then he gets to write something clever. Considering the kind of project it is, I consider this a fair distribution of labor.

I got some paper, and some stamps, and some notecards and stuff - man there is a lot out there as far as papercraft is concerned. I mean like, whoa. I don't usually do any of this type of craft soyeah, these cards will, in fact, cost more than our card usually do, but hey! Snowflake glitter!

Any of you scrapbooking types have any suggestions for websites, ideas, glues, that kind of thing?

I still have some modge podge.....

(also hey, if you want one, send me an email with an address, unless you know I've got it already.)

Pure Corny Goodness

2008-10-06T18:19:00.002-04:00

Spent today making Scrape Corn with my parents. Back in 1991 my father, whose favorite food was corn, cut off the cob with lots of buuter, was diagnosed with diverticulitis. As a result he can't eat corn, or nuts or seeds unless they are ground up or all small hard bits have been previously demolished. He could, I suppose, chew each bite until it reaches a complete paste but that removes some enjoyment of eating.

So, a couple years later, my mother dug up the recipe for Scrape Corn. It's NOT good for the cholesterol, nor is it really all that healthy...perhaps stick-to-your-ribs would be a better description.

Ingredients: Corn on the cob, uncooked
Butter/margerine
Time

Using a knife or razor blade, puncture every kernel on the corn. Then scrape the blade of a knife down the ear of corn in small portions into a bowl, until all the pieces of the kernel have been demolished and added to the bowl. Note: This is a messy process. Repeat until all the corn has been scraped.

Melt 2 Tbs butter/margerine in a large frying pan over med-low heat. Add scraped corn to fill the frying pan. Cook, over low-med-low heat, stirring often. Use a spatula to scrape the bottom of the pan. If it is sticking badly to the pan, add more butter. Cook for approximately 1 hour (or until most of the liquid has been cooked off). The final consistency should be like a thick pudding. Add salt to taste. This makes a very autumnal or nice winter side dish in small amounts. It's very rich and tastes like corn candy (not candy corn).

I would assume that this is a recipe of old New England, but I've never researched it. (Hmmm, I have a food historian coming to do a program at the CT Historical Society next month...maybe I should ask her?)

Enjoy.

Hippo Birdie Two Ewes

2008-09-09T21:56:00.002-04:00

I got a glue gun. AND a staple/nail gun. I also made two hats. It is hard to take a picture of yourself wearing a hat.

Little things

2008-08-18T22:21:00.005-04:00

This really is the only good use for that percolator. Also, I made a set of origami box lights for our stairs. Now if only we could be finished unpacking.

Also, I crocheted a hat, but haven't taken a picture yet.

Crafting home

2008-07-21T23:46:00.002-04:00

Maybe it is a girl thing. It probably is, something to do with nesting. Although in the car, I wish I had a tape recorder, because HE said he wanted to really pull the house together, to not have anything in boxes, because we've come to far to live like kids in their first apartment. Or at least something like that, I'm paraphrasing.

We still have no furniture, it's on a truck somewhere, and yet, there is already things hanging on the wall. I bought a few plants and pots for the patio and we've discussed furniture placement. Oh, and the spongebob bathroom is mostly set. That came together first.

I have 652 other ideas for what to do here, with immediate finances being my major limiting factor. (Hello! Idiot! It is not cheap to move across country! Put down the awesome stone patio accessories!) Some of those ideas I know to be, well, a little quirky. This time, though, I'm giving myself permission to try them. They may not be things that most people would do in their houses (and some may be failures that I hate) but I'm going to try them anyway, because even though once again we find ourselves renting a space with beige carpet, white walls, and blinds, it's still supposed to be our home.

So maybe its time to live that way.

Attack of the Mutant Challah!

2008-07-20T20:23:00.002-04:00

Here is a challah that I made from scratch over 4th of July weekend. I think it's pretty good for a first try. It grew weirdly on one end & looks like a mutated manatee. It tasted nice, if a little too sweet.

Cross country crafting

2008-07-12T09:47:00.002-04:00

Does it make me completely crazy that I am considering gathering bags of dirt along the way to Oregon so I can make a series of dorodango when I get there?

I'm glad crochet takes up so little space. Planning at least one surly cake for the route.

The ghost in the machine

2008-06-22T18:33:00.003-04:00

My sewing machine was my mother's, with all the baggage that you can imagine that brings. My sister and I both learned some of our craft skills from her, and a whole lot more on our own, after she died, when faced with the piles of her unfinished projects. The sewing machine is the only sewing machine I can remember, and the memories are not always happy. Trying to stay still while yet another stupid dress was pinned on me. Her critiquing over my shoulder when I tried to sew something. Fights that usually ended with me giving up, and her taking over to finish whatever it was I was working on.

This is why I give serious thought to my training methods at work.

I take these memories with me every time I lug the heavy thing out of its case and set it up on my dining room table. And the machine objects to me. I know it does. I don't understand it, don't understand why tensioning knobs don't work, how thread can get knotted up inside the bobbin, why I have to keep rethreading the needle at random intervals. It didn't used to act this way.

It hates me.

Still, I manage to turn out some ok looking things. Maybe it has personal pride at stake? I don't know. I made this Japanese style knot bag because I hate a purse but like having something for my wallet and phone on a plane. Not bad, right? It's good you can't see in between the two fabric layers. And it isn't exactly reversible the way the pattern is supposed to be. (Hey, props for taking a picture of my own arm!) But passable enough that I'll use it.

A couple of parts of the machine broke off recently. Kinda important parts like the thing that holds on the foot. I went to Jo-Ann to ask about the existence of replacement parts. A lovely woman called Viking for me after we discovered no such listing for the model in the parts book. New parts, they said, are just not available anymore, even to those who would be able to service it, if I could find someone. The lady at Jo-Ann broke the news. "You're going to have to start looking for a new machine."

I know this will help my sewing. A new machine and I could become at least understanding if not outright friendly. But I'll admit it, I'm not ready for a new machine just yet.

Need Advice

2008-06-06T17:52:00.007-04:00

OK I am working on another idea of something to sell and give as gifts. The new item is a Church Dolls aka prayer dolls aka baptism dolls aka plantation doll (I have found lots of names for these little dolls). They originally were made from men's handkerchiefs, then again, I have read they are made from "grandma's hanky", which make me suspicious of the true history of the doll.

Their purpose though is always the same. A simple doll for little girls to play with in church, 0r anywhere else, that you want to keep the child quietly occupied. Above are modern examples of the dolls, I have yet to find a picture of one from the colonial days when they supposedly originated. Another reason why I am suspicious of it's history.

Below is my prototype. Please disregard the wrinkles and unfinished edges, when making this I was more concerned about getting the design correct. Tell me if it looks too creepy. I wanted to use smaller black buttons for the eyes, but I didn't have any on hand. Also I am going to sew the bonnet higher on the head so there will not be such a gap. Thankfully my daughter recognized it as a doll.

I look forward to get every one's input.

Gnomenclature

2008-06-04T21:09:00.003-04:00

This unfinished project has caused no end of trouble. Not the project itself, which is done with needle punch embroidery (a quick way to smile according to the French on the packaging) and allows me to stab something repeatedly with a sharp object. That part is great. I haven't even stabbed my leg yet and only have to finish that one mushroom.

The problem is the design, which I stole from someplace online. The free pattern listed itself as being a gnome. This is not how my beloved sees gnomes. I can see his point, but I know of gnomes like this. Then, we fight. So it is a battle ground gnome/man's land in my house. My sweetheart is such a troublemaker. Don't get him started on Santa's not-really-elves, either.

I think it's going to be a little pillow when it is done.

Gardening with a toddler

2008-05-23T19:03:00.002-04:00

After weeks spent intermittently turning a piece of lawn into a garden (without the assistance of a roto-tiller) I finally got to planting today. We were out shopping for other things when I asked the 2-year old if she wanted to go home or buy flowers and plants. Then we spent the next 15 minutes of the drive with her saying "flowers" every 2 minutes.

Red and green bell peppers, pole beans, zucchini, cucumbers, basil, lemon thyme and regular and heirloom plum tomatoes. The little one was extremely excited with the bean seeds (another phrase she repeated 100 times or so for the rest of the afternoon). Hopefully they'll come up and keep her interest in the garden, and mine. Since we don't have a fence up yet, my other great hope is that the neighborhood bunnies don't attack overnight.

E enjoyed planting the seeds, and then was impatiently demanding "next" every time I stopped to do something silly like cover a plant with soil. Picking the flats of plants up by the leaves, walking without looking through the garden, sitting down on top of pepper plants. She was scolded numerous times this afternoon with absolutely no effect and probably still has no idea why. Any suggestions to train a little one on watching where she walks?

Projects Completed

2008-05-19T17:03:00.002-04:00

Does hanging a pre-made curtain count as a craft? It did involve tools and I had been putting if off for only a year and 2 months. Of course I bought the curtain on clearance without actually measuring the window first. As you can see it is too small...I need another one, but I figure it took me over a year to hang this guy, obviously this window is a low priority in my home decor.

I DID actually craft this week. I have been trying to come up with something I could make and sell at craft fairs and such...drum roll please...tooth fairy pillows!

I am really pleased at how these out. My 1st two pillows (LSU ones) were a little too big, so I shrunk my pattern down an inch and they are now perfect.

1st first photo (disregarding the curtain one) is of my wool felt teeth after they have been bowed, smiled and eyed. Everything is sewn on but the jiggly eyes.

2nd photo is a close-up of a finished pillow.

3rd photo shows all of the pillows I was able to complete in 2 days!! I could have done a couple of more, but my sewing machine flaked on me. OK that isn't the truth. I thought my machine was acting up, turns out I hadn't changed out my quilting needle to a normal needle. Apparently quilting needles are not only sharper, they are also longer. Now we all know :) Unfortunately it took me 2 hours to figure this out. :P

I also designed and made "Official Tooth Fairy Tooth Transaction Logs" to go with the pillows. The card contains: a tooth chart so kids can color in which tooth was lost; a log to note the date of the tooth loss (I even threw in a bow for the tooth fairy to check off she received the tooh) , a pocket to hold a tooth, a reminder that healthy teeth are more valuable so brush and floss and finally instructions.

First Baby Quilt for 2008! Only 3 Months Late.

2008-05-13T10:10:00.006-04:00

For the record I had finished the top of the quilt before the baby shower in February. I just was unable to layer it together, quilt and finish the binding.

I truly enjoyed making this quilt. I made it for the baby girl of my close friends Marty and Chappell. I have known Marty since he and my little brother became friends in middle school! (I am very close to my little brother, so we actually share some friends.) Regardless I wanted this quilt to be extra special.
I chose colors and traditional patterned fabric to match the look of the nursery. I would have used toile, but couldn't find any at Joann's. I know I should have looked online, I just wasn't thinking in that mode. Selecting fabric has always been a hands-on thing for me. I do have to put a shout out to a great online store, Quilt Taffy, that I have recently discovered. I can not wait to start buying from this gal.

I have another quilt to make soon. My little brother is expecting his first born June 5th. They don't know the sex so I am waiting to the little bundle is born before I begin.

taking my lemonness to new levels

2008-05-06T17:09:00.004-04:00

I made pie. Lemon pie. It uses the whole lemon. No meringue. I totally dig it. Also, I have sprouts of oregano, chives and basil, but the picture was blurry.

I am totally domesticated. Wait, is that what I mean?

Zucchini anyone?

2008-04-30T21:08:00.003-04:00

Rather than crash in front of a movie or with a book tonight after the baby went to bed I decided to bake. This is something I often want to do until I go downstairs after the bed time ritual and decide that I don't have the patience, energy or desire to spend time in the kitchen.

Tonight however I was determined to use the zucchini I bought a few days ago and turn it into something my little girl will eat! She's not a fan of vegetables as vegetables...or fruit as fruit come to think of it. We keep trying, every day, but this is a method that works for us, at least once in a while. I tried Jessica Seinfeld's approach and decided that the subtitle of "easy" was a complete lie. Plus the 2 recipes I tried were disgusting, to adults and child alike. So, it's back to squash muffins and zucchini chocolate chip cookies. The muffins are yummy and far more successful for me lately than zucchini bread - which has been repeatedly raw in the middle, despite lengthier cooking times and a flawless oven. The recipe is made by the walnuts, but since we haven't really introduced nuts to the little girl's diet yet, they only go in the half destined for grown-ups. The cookies are a new venture. Barbara Kingsolver used these in Animal Vegetable Miracle and they sounded intriguing. Lousy cook that I am, I didn't try one as they came out of the oven. We'll try then on a child and maybe on colleagues tomorrow.

Hopefully the whole lot will be better than the very sour sourdough I made the other day that didn't really rise.

HOLY CRAFT!

2008-04-17T23:16:00.002-04:00

Note to self: Stenciling with room temperature butter is never a good idea.

I've wanted to do this a while now and only I've just gotten around to it. I have older stencils tacked up on the wall in my office and they stare down, yelling at me to use them on a daily basis. I've become a Jedi master at blocking their demands out. However, today it was impossible to silence them. So I made a car decal.

It didn't turn out how I wanted it to. The contact paper I was using was like cutting through room temperature butter. Joining two cuts and or trying to make a round cut was close to impossible. At first I was optomistic and wanted to do the whole thing. After cutting part of the body out, I had to change my plan. What I started out doing is completely different than my end game... and I'm actually quite thrilled about it.

I was sitting there cutting out Shauns body thinking, "When I get to the face it's going to be beyond difficult." So, I stopped. I had an arm, a cricket bat and part of a body.

I stared at it.

I called it a few bad names.

Then it struck me. Cut out the tie!

I cut it out and laid what I had before me. I LOVED IT. Not only is it a slightly obscure movie, what I had was a wildly obscure decal.

I don't care if no one gets it. What I care about is making the 4 people who live in this town who've seen the movie, smile.

i smile when i look at it

Total Fluke

2008-04-17T20:19:00.003-04:00

I needed to not cook tonight. I decided this after making my dinner, while I had my favorite rhubarb dessert soup on the stove. Yeah, what can I say, I'm really good at making definitive decisions. Phblt.

Anyway, I wanted to do something that didn't involve food, and I am really glad that I did. I realized just how long it had been since I played with my crochet hook when I picked it up and could not remember how to start. Yeah, bad. So then I went in search of a project that was small enough to finish easily this evening and not food. This is what I ended up with:

Meet Blimey, the nearly blind whale! I know, you're saying, "Nearly Blind? That eyeball is a gazillion times bigger than it would be really!" I know, I know. But it took 6 tries before I found a needle small enough to fit through the hole in the back so I could sew the eyes on. Hence, nearly blind. Glad I found one. The eyes make a big difference. That and the tail. I got a little crazy with the tail....

yes i know whale is edible. shut up.

Is this a Sign of the Apocalypse?

2008-04-07T21:35:00.005-04:00

While in toys r us last week I saw this doll. Now I enjoy scrapbooking, don't get me wrong, but I find this doll disturbing and it brought a lot of questions to mind.
Are they mocking us scrappers?
Are they trying to brain wash young girls into scrapbooking at a very early age?
Is the infant doll suppose to scrapbook? They recommend girls 3 and up play with this little doll. Are 3 year olds suppose to pretend their baby is scrapbooking or are they suppose to scrapbook about their relationship with their fake baby?
Is the baby wearing a Headband of Creativity?

Tailoring advice, please!

2008-04-05T15:26:00.003-04:00

It is time, after years of chocolate, raspberry puree, passion fruit coulis, chlorine bleach and other assorted products, for me to start replacing my chef coats. The ones I have, I love. They are short sleeved so they are great in the summer and when reaching in to scrape out 40 quart bowls of cheesecake batter. They are a women's cut so I don't look like I have on my big brother's shirt and weigh another 30 pounds. They also are no longer being produced, although when they were, they were like a hundred dollars a pop. No thank you!

So I found a short sleeved jacket for twenty dollars. The problem is, it fits in the shoulders and chest, and everywhere else is just not right. Lame! I think, maybe, I could tailor it myself. I know, it's sewing, but I can hem up the sleeves and bottom of the jacket, and I think I could take in the sides a bit. But I'm not sure. Should I even try? Just take it to a professional? Whatchall think?

Food Porn!!

2008-04-02T10:04:00.004-04:00

After recently purchasing "Fix, Freeze, Feast" I went on a quest to make the best use of my kitchen time by making lots of meals in advance. I'm not particularly fond of cooking, so if I'm going to spend an hour+ in the kitchen, I'd like more to show for my effort than just one lousy meal that my son won't eat, my daughter will inhale, and my husband will pick at & go "meh".

My first attempt was Chicken Curry. I didn't take a picture of it, but suffice to say, it was little chicken chunks with a yellow sauce over rice. Again, won't eat, inhale, "meh". At least I have lots more of it in the freezer.

Then I tried these mexican stuffed red peppers. Mmmmmm. They were mighty good & I have 3 more gallon bags of the stuffing in my freezer!

Well, no, we don't NEED a third one...

2008-03-30T19:24:00.001-04:00

but could you turn away such a happy face?

Superior help for hard working hands

2008-03-29T11:06:00.004-04:00

Here's a useful little thingy.

My hands are wrecked this week. Completely. It started with a peeler gouge while I was making 250 poached pears. It went on to include some fabulously ugly blistered burns from tuna oil from the guy next to me on the line (Harumph! Indeed!) and some innumerable bumps, dings, cracks and overall dryness all thanks to what one of the sous chefs refers to as "the worst week every year" - and that's counting December. Now, I wouldn't lay claim to any vanity where my hands are concerned, but well, I am a girl. So this is one of my favorite fixes.

In a bowl mix a couple spoonfuls of plain yogurt or cream and a spoonful of honey. Add some ground almonds and a bit of rosewater if you've got it. Slather that on your hands, especially the backs of them, and throw on a pair of powder-free latex gloves. Go about your business for about ten minutes. Toss the gloves, rinse the hands in cool water. You could go all out at this point and moisturize your nails with almond oil and stuff like that but that's all up to you.

It really really helps and is way cheaper than some schmancy hand cream. Also, it tastes good. Don't look at me like that, it does.

When did thread get so expensive? It should be 75 cents.

2008-03-27T19:49:00.002-04:00

I have already discussed my feelings on sewing. Hemming is almost worse than sewing, because hemming is something I have to do, rather than something I am doing by choice.

Now, let us discuss chef pants. Chef pants are designed 1. for men, 2. to be washed and worn a gazillion times until they fall apart, 3. out of enough fabric so that in the event they catch fire, the actual pant is nowhere near skin and finally 4. for men. Given these factors every pair of pants I get for work I need to hem. Lots.

I got two new pairs of pants this week to replace ones with holes that were potentially against the company's HR policies. So now, I must hem.

Can you tell I'm trying to delay?

I hate hemming.

Happy Easter and Vitamin C

2008-03-23T12:58:00.003-04:00

When I asked if anyone planning to be at Easter dinner has any problems with lemon I'm not sure the message really got across. We'll see, in a few hours, how the uninitiated make out with Bon Appetit's Gingered Lemon Meringue Pie. It's tart...I mean, REALLY tart (and I tone it down and make it sweeter than the recipe calls). Kathy introduced us to this recipe along with the sour-puss faces that it draws many years ago. It's a once in a while treat.

Maybe the lemon juice will get rid of the cold holding the whole family hostage, me with laryngitis.

Does my desire to celebrate a mathematical constant make me a nerd?

2008-03-13T21:48:00.013-04:00

So tomorrow is pi day (March 14th, get it? celebrate at 1:59?), and, not being the imaginative sort, I like to celebrate pi day with pie. Last year I made pie for every meal, but I am just not feeling that ambitious this year, so I settled on making two pies and bringing them into work. I decided on an old school mixed berry pie (read: I couldn't pick between cherry and blueberry, so I just threw both in there, and some blackberries to make it seem intentional), cornstarch thickened, and crust from scratch (of course, adoxograph would never forgive me if I did otherwise. For that matter, I would never forgive myself if I did otherwise, so it kind of works out).

That pie happened like this:

First came crust assembly, following a recipe adoxograph gave me about a gazillion months ago. I always have trouble with pie crusts because I have hot hands, and the butter wants to go all melty. It probably doesn't help that I am impatient.
While I was letting the dough rest (have to give the starches time to hydrate, man!), I prepped the filling, which was just frozen fruit, a little butter, a little salt, about a quarter cup of sugar, almond extract, and that corn starch I mentioned earlier.Oh yeah. And there's a graham cracker crust back there. Ignore that for now.

Once the filling was prepped, I rolled out and blind baked the bottom crust. While the blind baking happened, I rolled out the top crust. Then the blind baking was done, and I filled the pie...
...then placed the top crust and cut the thematically appropriate vent. SYMBOLIC!
That went into the oven, allowing me to focus on the other pie.

Oh, the other pie!

See, a few weeks ago, I had an idea, which is always a dangerous thing. And not just any idea, mind. A pie idea. Or piedea, I suppose. And it was a majestic piedea. See, it's Easter, and Easter means Peeps. Peeps are marshmallows, right? And if you'll recall from my thingaday posts, I'd been making toaster oven s'mores. Do you see where I am going with this?

Yeah, that's right. It's an Easter S'more Peep Massacre pie.

So you already saw the graham cracker crust resting idly alongside the berry filling, but here's another shot of that, for fun. I also made a chocolate custard while the dough for the other pie hydrated (no action shots on that; haven't yet worked out how to stir constantly and take a photo simultaneously). That cooled while the berry pie was baking, and then I proceeded to fill the graham cracker crust with the custard. Then came the Peeps. I bought four colors, and arranged them on top of the custard in the pie (oh, and check the completed berry pie. NICE).They look so innocent.
I started wondering whether they knew what was about to happen next. It was about at this point when I started laughing hysterically.
See, here's the thing: it's not a s'more if the marshmallow isn't toasted.

Thank goodness my dear friend was willing to loan me his kitchen torch.Note: Peeps do catch fire, just as you'd expect. Also those freaky brown dot eyeballs are not nearly as sturdy as I thought they would be.I have to say, I feel a little bad for melting their tiny faces off. But it had to be done. For science.

Scooped you again, Catch

2008-03-11T16:31:00.002-04:00

Yeah, that was so a goal for this year.

At least it's an excellent template if I do decide to go and do it in granny square.

Hey, when did this whole March thing happen?

2008-03-10T19:09:00.003-04:00

I hate daylight savings time. I predict that everything I make this week will be surly. And that makes me happy. Yes, that is my second pink surly shrinky cake. The first one broke and I can't find it. But hey, rubber stamps and shrinky dinks? Way cool...

If I had an accent...

2008-03-03T22:07:00.006-05:00

...I'd have been doing those Geico commercials.

Oh well, even platyhippos need love:

It's a new species!!

2008-02-29T21:25:00.004-05:00

I call it the Platyhippo. Okay, so I was trying to make this:

Instead what I got was poor, sad little Piper the Platyhippo here:

I hope to one day not suck so badly at this.

The love you take is equal to the love you make

2008-02-29T18:36:00.002-05:00

I think the other eggs seem a little taken aback; what do you think?

I'm glad I did this, but I am also glad it's done. Happy Thingaday all around.

Now get back to work.

all work and no play makes Homer something something

2008-02-28T22:29:00.004-05:00

14 hour work day! Still came home and knitted most of an egg cozy. Guilt is powerful.

Will finish tomorrow.

Also, my life is pretty lonely these days, but I am happy to report that my cat still loves me. Just look at the way he cuddles!

An official message

2008-02-28T08:49:00.002-05:00

Stupid fricking evil spam comments have been appearing here. I have been attempting to destroy them with my magic clicky trash can. If I miss one, let me know, because I hate them.

Also, I am officially opting out of today's thing because of the charity chocolate competition of doom that I am in tonight.... but if I can get any hilarious phone pictures worth posting, I totally will. (Basically it is an invite only people's choice comp for 6 catering companies in the area. We have to serve up 400 mini samples of this one dessert, and I am thinking that we have way not enough prep. We'll see. )

Taking responsibility

2008-02-27T23:17:00.003-05:00

I spent the better part of this evening with a good friend crafting and chatting. We're thinking of setting up regular "lumpy crafting" evenings, which is something I find wonderful.

During conversation, one of the things that came up was our mutual frustration with people who do not do what they are going to do. Seriously, people, if you say you are going to do something, just do it. It is not so hard. If you are not going to do something, don't say you will do it. It's okay. I'd rather you made no promises than promises you can't keep.

Given that context, I am pleased to announce that I completed the scarf I was working on! Just as I had hoped, though barely inside of the month limitation. I've even sewn in the ends! So it's really, really finished! Score.

Excahuse me waitair...

2008-02-27T20:05:00.003-05:00

... zis croissant, he is a bit petit, non?

I can't believe it took me this long to knit a croissant. Still trying to decide if I should have that guy I live with come up with a french face for it.

la la la la

2008-02-27T18:53:00.002-05:00

Here are some Christmas Reindeer.

Picture from last night

2008-02-27T18:38:00.003-05:00

This is the sourdough with whole wheat flour.
Still figuring this uploading thing, sorry.

I was hot, and I was hungry.

2008-02-26T21:38:00.004-05:00

Actually, I was tired and feeling lazy, and there were some trying moments today that demanded chocolate, and this only took twenty minutes if you also count the time I spent consuming the resulting product.

However, I still think there is something vaguely revelatory about the knowledge that you can make s'mores in a toaster oven even though I don't particularly like s'mores.

I know, I know, strange but true--they're just too sweet for my tastes.

Despite that, tonight was a s'more night:

Man, how many pictures are there of oatmeal in my entries?

Maybe it is a found object thing

2008-02-26T19:46:00.004-05:00

I really like making collages. Something about putting together other people's stuff in another way appeals to me. It started in the way back era of the mix tape, I would make a collage for a cassette cover. I still do, sometimes, with CDs I make . I have tried doing similar things with photoshop, but it just isn't the same. Maybe it's just an excuse to play with glue. I don't know.

Anyway, i saw this ugly box while my sister was around. It was a dollar. It needed buying, and fixing. So far, I've done about half. The grapefruit on top makes me happier than you can believe.The other thing I like about collaging? Sometimes you find pictures like this:
I just need to figure out what to do with it. Awesomeness.

Months have passed...

2008-02-26T18:49:00.004-05:00

Months have passed with the baking on the increase...at least for me. Fortunately the holidays enabled me to do my requisite gift giving of baked goods and candies, to great acclaim. Photos of some of them will follow, per request of Adoxograph.

Now that my little girl is enjoying manipulating things with her hands, I'm trying to bake something at least once a week with her. This one, from a few months ago and recently repeated, Sourdough Italian, made with mostly wheat flour. Since we all like to eat it too, it's a win win.

Yes, duh, you should totally post the recipe

2008-02-25T21:22:00.004-05:00

Also I think I'm getting hands like my mom's were. It's a knobbly knuckle or thin papery skin thing. It was almost weird, taking a picture like this. I am quite pleased, after the fact, to note that my finger nails are not really dirty. How lucky!

To make room for the tuna!

2008-02-25T21:10:00.004-05:00

I made chocolate Guinness cupcakes! And cream cheese frosting!

With those two forces combined (that will happen in the morning before work) I figure that I can take over the world.

Okay, jeez:
cake stuff:
3/4 cup cocoa powder
2 cups sugar
2 cups ap flour
1 tsp baking soda
Pinch fine salt
1 bottle stout
1 stick butter, melted
1 big glorp vanilla extract
3 eggs
3/4 cup sour cream or yogurt or whatever substitute you have on hand

frosting stuff:
1 (8-ounce) package cream cheese, softened
3/4 cup heavy cream
a pound or so of confectioners' sugar (I find the texture of this stuff unsettling)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
Prep your muffin tins as per your preference. I usually do the little baking cups because I am lazy.

Mix everything in the cake list up to the salt together in one bowl. In a bigger bowl, mix the stout, melted butter, and vanilla, beat in the eggs, and mix in the sour cream. The liquid will look extremely unappetizing right up until the time you get the sour cream mixed in. Mix the dry ingredients into the wet mixture, don't overmix because, you know, it's cake, and we don't want it to be tough, because that's nasty.

Fill your muffin tins. I found that a 1/4 cup scoop did pretty well for this, but I wasn't real precise about it or anything. Bake for about 12 minutes, turn your pans around, bake another 12 minutes. The cake is pretty moist, so you'll want to let them cool in the pan so they don't go awry.

For the icing, beat the softened cream cheese until it goes all fluffy. Beat in the heavy cream until the combo cheese/cream mixture goes all fluffy. Beat in the sugar (you may want to add more or less, depending upon how you like it) until the cheese/cream/sugar combo is fluffy.

It's a pretty lightweight icing, so definitely wait until the cupcakes cool before frosting, because that stuff will totally melt. Although, for the record, it is still quite tasty melted.

I need a second opinion!

2008-02-24T21:45:00.002-05:00

Is this length good, or should I give it a few more inches?
My first inclination is to go a little longer, but perhaps that's just because I am masochistic with my crafting.

p.s. dig the pjs, yo.

practicality on a Sunday night

2008-02-24T18:49:00.003-05:00

I go through socks something fierce. It is to be expected, I figure, but it means I end up with a lot of holey heels. Mostly, these socks linger for an appalling amount of time in my sock drawer before finally getting thrown out. But every once in a while, I'll darn up a pair. I like doing it, there is something satisfying about the process of mending, but the end result is bittersweet.

I can never really wear these mended socks the way I wore the originals. The repairs make my sensitive feet more tender, rub in my clogs in weird ways. They are good enough for around the house, but they will never really be the same again. Strangely, this makes me want to decorate them more, to festoon them into something supremely unpractical. I'd probably stop short of lace around the cuffs, but I'd seriously consider just about anything else. An embroidered Taj Mahal on the instep? Well, that's a bit above my skill level, but not out of the question.

Just fixing the heels is enough for today, though.

I really need to put GIMP on this machine

2008-02-23T22:21:00.004-05:00

These jpeg compression nasties are completely unacceptable.
So, naturally, today's thing (does it count as crafty if it just involved flipping bits? Here's hoping yes, as it did take a fair chunk of time to get it just so) has a story behind it.

Current social situation in my life? Complicated would be putting it nicely. But I am trying to figure out how to deal with that while minimizing collateral damage. So I was trying to figure out how best to communicate to people around me about the particular hazards associated with being around me at this moment in time. This was what I came up with. I think it works!

It's amateurish, but still a tempting idea as a t-shirt. Or, you know, a tattoo. On my tongue. So everyone knows precisely what they are in for when they talk to me.

(Perhaps I should add something about staying back by at least 100 feet.)

*sigh*

These awful photographs completely fail to communicate how awesome this is

2008-02-22T22:02:00.004-05:00

OH HOLY SMOKES, PEOPLE, I MADE A DRESS!

Check it out now (the funk soul brother):

front,

and kinda the back, but mostly a chair in my apartment.

It turns out it is really hard to take pictures of your own back!

To make the straps, I took the extra material, marked off a strip 2.5 inches wide, and then folded that in half and sewed up the edge, then turned that inside out to make the seam. Pinned those in place using my bra straps as a guide (and can I just reiterate how difficult it is to pin yourself into something you are wearing, particularly if you are using your non-dominant hand?), and then sewed those in place, then trimmed off the excess.

I am doing such a ridiculous happy dance right now, it's silly.

Normally I would never do this...

2008-02-22T19:23:00.006-05:00

I am not one for key accessories. I do not decorate my doorknobs, why should I ornament my key ring? This, however, had to be an exception...
It's surly and shrinky!

Apparently those self portraits got so frustrating that I have a new default thing.

2008-02-21T22:26:00.003-05:00

ALMOST TWO LEGS LONG!!

You know what is great about making scarves? If you aren't being fancy, you don't even have to count anything. Just go until it's about as wide as you want, turn around go back the other way, over and over until it is done.

Brain seems to greatly appreciate the associated opportunity to think about something else.