There's mushrooms in my army...

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

Building my plant army

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

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!!

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!

The craft blog linked to a recipe of mine today.

Yes, I'm pretty much telling everyone.

also, hey, did anyone notice?

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

Go us!

Where's that damn muse?

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?