Stretching

This year at Cookbook Club, I decided I would try new things that I have thought were too difficult in the past. In part, I was motivated by this post at Chocolate and Zucchini, "A Bucket List for Cooks."

Here, you can see I conquered, No. 33 "Make your own crust for a tart, quiche, or pie." I made a crust for this tart (Sara Moulton's Everyday Family Dinners) and a quiche (Mastering the Art of French Cooking). This is "Joanne's New and Improved Blueberry Tart," about 1/4 of the blueberries are cooked down to goo and fresh berries are stirred into it. I love it so much more than regular fruit pie. (I hate the goo for some reason.) Oh wait, I also did an onion tart (even more tart-y than this one, which I find very pie-ish) for Alice Water's The Art of Simple Food.

I did the quiche twice because the dude and I got confused about which week it was. We ate a lot of very rich quiche those two weeks. So I feel pretty confident about my pie crust.

I also decided I should try working with filo dough. Everyone says it is so difficult that I just never have. I decided to make tiropita when we did Greek Revival: Cooking for Life. If you know spanikopita, tiropita is spanikopita without the spinach. (Yes, plain cheese!) I made little triangles. Of pure cheesy deliciousness! And also, working with filo isn't on the cook's bucket list because it's not that hard.

I have also checked off "Make caramel." I made it for Caramelized Banana Rum Ice Cream (from The Everything Ice Cream, Gelato, and Frozen Desserts Cookbook). Yes you caramelize the bananas, and you stick toffee chunks in it, but the ice cream is caramel flavored.

I think "Make a laminated dough" may be next. The dude and I were awfully fond of Danish danishes.

Recovering Your Crafting Mojo

The other day Brigitte said that she usually loses her blogging mojo when she loses her crafting mojo. How does a person get that back?

1. Browse Pinterest or your pattern stash or some craft magazines or...Sometimes seeing what is out there will get me interested in something I've been working on, and I'll get back to work. Looking at the colors or thinking about how happy an item I've run across would make a recipient turns on the right switch.
2. Do an Easy Craft or a Small One Maybe when you're on Pinterest you can find a teeny tiny thing to make. Or something that will be done quickly. Or something that involves gluing one thing to another. The easy peasy stuff that looks good can get the ball rolling. Something like this where you are rubbing on a vinyl cling and filling a frame with something. Quick and cute.
3. Make a Whole New Craft Maybe your stitchy mojo is gone--try knitting! Or jewelry making. Or card stamping. You get the idea. Don't force your one hobby to carry all your creativity.
4. Start Something New As a serial starter, this is very appealing. I just seem to get momentum from new beginnings. 
5. Finish Something What's that you say? Having too many projects causes you anxiety? Well, then, look for the project that is closest to being done and just work on it until you finish. That finish will give you a boost and you'll be on to finishing the next thing.
6. Schedule Time to Craft Unless you're retired (and even then) you're too busy. I know you are. We all are. My father used to tell my mother "you can't stuff 10 pounds of stuff in a five pound bag," which is the physical corollary to this. You can't do 28 hours of things in a day. If you have a million other things to do, you are not going to be able to stitch. Put it on your calendar. Seriously. Tomorrow, I'm heading to a stamp party. It's on my calendar!
7. Do It First If you come home from work and then do the dishes and clean up the house and do the myriad other things that need doing, you are going to be too tired to stitch. So skip the dishes. Unless you have some kind of infestation, the dishes can wait. Do those when you don't have the energy to go on. 
8. Go to a Museum I think this is the 3-D version of No. 1. You can be inspired by other people's craft. I once took my six year old niece to the Brandywine River Museum. She raced through it in about 45 minutes. I thought I had failed miserably bringing her there, but when we got home she asked if she could draw. And I took out her paper and crayons and she drew for hours. Literally hours. If a six year old can be inspired by the Wyeth family, your local museum might work for you.
9. Fondle Your Threads Pretty pictures are one thing to get you inspired, but sometimes you need textures too. Looking at the rainbow of colors you've amassed in silk and cotton and petting the angora and very velvet (oh, that sounds dirty) may stimulate (I'm not doing it on purpose, I swear) your creativity. (oh, is that what we're calling it now?)
10. Take a Class Letting someone else make some of the decisions, and in fact tell you what to do, may be the jump start you're looking for. That's one of the things I love most about my jewelry making classes--I'm more the conduit than the creator. I'm putting someone else's idea into action (with my own colors, natch). It takes some of the thinkiness out of the equation.
11. Revisit Successes Look at the things you've made. If you've given a lot of them away, reread old blog posts to see your record. Sometimes looking at one piece, or a series of pieces, will motivate you to finish one that is similar or part of the series. 
12. Turn Off the TV The tv is just a symbol here. Maybe you are spending too much time on Facebook or Pinterest (irony). Turn off the electronics and pick up the analog needle and thread. 
13. Turn On the TV I stitch more when the television is on. Much more. But the dude reads a lot so we don't have the tv on very often (seriously we go weeks without turning it on) (sometimes I just turn it on so that it won't stop working completely). Maybe you're like me and you'd stitch if the idiot box was on. Seriously there is something about my hands that can't keep still if I am just sitting there.
14. Live Through It Maybe you've got big heavy stuff going on in your life or even small annoying things. This too shall pass. You'll get back to it when you are ready.
15. Get Help My health system requires my doctors to ask during regular exams if I feel safe at home or if I'm falling down a lot or if I've lost interest in things I used to enjoy. Pay attention to that last one. It's a sign of depression. And if you need help, go get it. You're worth it. 

Thirty Days of Blogging

I made it the whole way through NaBloPoMo! Phew.

Here are the ideas* I didn't use:

1. Share your workspace (clean your workspace first)
2. Book reviews
3. Look at magazine headlines and do a word swap
4. Use one of two words from the headline as a jumping off point
5. Rewrite the article from your own perspective
6. My favorite present I've ever received
7. 10 things I believe
8. A Room with a View
9. If you had one whimsical or fantastical wish, what would it be?
10. What do your family and friends think of your blogging?
11. Christmas decorations make me ______
12. What is one thing you do very well that you don't get credit for?
13. What were you doing on this day 10 years ago?
14. Since blogging do you find you have real life friends and blogging friends?
15. Are your blogging friends different that real life friends? How?
16. A craft/hobby/interest you wish you were good at
17. What's on your bucket list?
18. Take us on a tour of your home; what are your favorite spots and corners? What's hiding behind those closet doors?
19. Why did you start blogging?
20. Respond to a snarky email or comment
21. A post (with pictures) describing the worst style you've ever had
22. A blog how to: describe a technical problem you've had with your blog and how you solved it
23. The weirdest thing you like to eat
24. A list of the strangest foods in your kitchen
25. What's the worst date you've ever been on?
26. Are we saying what we really mean in the blog world or are we all just being too nice
27. Find a blog twin--someone you follow who is either like you were when younger OR how you hope to be when older--write about each other
28. Your favorite smell
29. You should have listened to me---
30. Your worst interview
31. The one thing you use most in your house
32. The essential guide to throwing a great party
33. uses for the safety pin
34. Something you excel at
35. Seven things you can do on this weekend on the spur of the moment
36. Scrapbooking
37. Make a new recipe each week 
38. Try making a recipe from *Mastering the Art of French Cooking*
39. How has time and experience changed your perspective on a project
40. Favorite holiday and why
41. What do you love most about yourself?
42. If you got a movie deal based on your blog, who would star in it?
43. What gets you out of bed in the morning
44. What do you enjoy most about your life?
45. If the books on your nightstand could talk, what would they say?
46. Name 10 creative ways to pass the time in the carpool lane
47. Why is that in my purse
48. My biggest pet peeve
49. Overheard: 
50. When I feel frustrated, I: 
51. Are you where you thought you would be in life?
52. Reality shows featuring crafters (I racked my brains all month and came up with nothing! I really wanted to do this one.) :(
53. Recreate an outfit from a childhood photo
54. Organize a swap and show your loot
55. Post your recent Twitter or Instagram favorites
56. Show off your all time favorite thrift store score
57. Make a list of tips for new bloggers
58. Interview a fellow blogger
59. Actually do that popular DIY from Pinterest
60. Share your opinion on a recent trend
61. Give your readers a tour of your city
62. What's in your bag (I've done this one before.)
63. Review a recent purchase
64. Show us your busy schedule
65. Give us a dose of your favorite wedding photos from Pinterest (you know who should do this? Lee.)
66. Share your recent vacation pictures
67. Answer some recent comments
68. Create a how-to post (I've got two of those I still haven't done; sigh)
69. Take a look at what you wrote this time last year, can you expand on it?
70. How are you getting organized this year? 
71. Write 25 Common sense things people should know.

As I went through this list, I found duplicates. I also found a few that are too good to give away. Yup, I'm holding out on you! At least until next November!

I culled the ideas from all over the internet, but these 600 from Kludgy Mom are pretty comprehensive (if not repetitive). 

Denim Vest

I am definitely stuck in the past when it comes to popular culture. We pretty much stopped watching television in the nineties, when I stopped listening to new music as well. I think I pretty much stopped being cool in 1997. But whenever I hear the word "denim," I think of this:

Recently, one of my oldest and dearest friends asked me if I had any recommendations for how to recycle denim. And while I think a denim vest (with snaps!) might be one option, I was able to find many cuter ones on a trip around the internet.

• Betz White is a mistress of upcycling and she made an adorable denim apron. 
• OMG this is a cute one: denim whale plushie
• And while we're on the topic of stuffies, stripey penguin. This link doesn’t have the pattern, but rather a link to the pattern. The original pattern maker didn't use denim; you have to see the one made with denim which I think is cuter. 
• You can make placemats for the kitchen.
• And your kid can have a coordinated denim bibs
• Quilts are always an option, whether they are Modern...
• Patchwork...
• or Rag
• If you made a promise to get organized in the new year, you might use this basket: 
• or this organizer
• This pattern is no longer available, but the photo lives on as a pinterest pin, and it's cute.
• Sometimes you get a hole in the thigh, and then you can remake your jeans into a skirt, like this one with the insert
• Or a Flirty skirt
• Cute tote

I hope this inspires those of you who have been saving worn denim (funny, I actually have) to make something fun. If you've come across a project or have other ideas, leave them in the comments, please!

Eighty Eight Days

Thanks--I think--for the, um, compliments on my future BIL. I'm sorry to report he is an only child. As for the old lady, please do not encourage the old broad. 


I had a pretty rotten day today. I was supposed to meet someone for an informational interview, but she was injured at work and had to go to the ER. (Okay, so my day wasn't nearly as bad as hers.) I had schlepped a mile in the pouring rain to get there. Because it was raining, I had worn a trench coat and the temperature shot up to 80, so of course I was schvitzing.  My hair was frizzing. I was cranky as all get out. Then when I got off the subway a guy told me I had a "nice butt." I was hoping my sarcastic "thank you" indicated "I'm a feminist; my butt does not exist for your pleasure." I'm not sure he did, since he then said something about chocolate. Not sure if he asked if it had a little chocolate in it, if I wanted a little chocolate in it, or if it were made out of chocolate. But that's neither here nor there.


In the course of public transporting, I realized there are just 88 days until Christmas. Usually by the end of September, I have not only made a list of projects to make as gifts, I've gathered supplies and have been stitching for a couple of months. People, here it is the 28th of September, and I have not even thought about Christmas yet. What is wrong with me?


It's not the lack of funds due to unemployment--remember that last year I made nearly all my gifts. Total outlay wasn't that large. (OMG! I have a new person* to give to.)


I am off to make a list! And I will do my best to remember there are only 88 days left. Because we all know how hard it is to anticipate how long making each gift will actually take.


*Fortunately, my family knows he's not getting his SB stocking until Sissy and he actually tie the knot (in 228 days).

Camping? How About a List?

Just last week I was looking for a camp packing list. I've compiled one; the fact that I was at camp for four days is hardly a coincidence. I looked around, saw the things people had and made a list. Of course there's some amount of overkill in what people bring--matching t-shirts, table mounted cup holders, grapes--but here's a list that is a happy medium.

• clothes
• pajamas
• robe--or wear your bra all day long (see New Rule #1)
• hoodie or sweater
• slippers
• shower shoes
• shoes (nb: you can probably make do with two pairs--or even just one--for 4 days)
• stitching lamp
• stitching projects
• needles
• scissors
• laying tool
• do-lolly
• camera
• nail file
• hand wipes
• band aids
• hand cream
• toiletries
• ear plugs--or perhaps noise canceling headphones
• umbrella But face it: if it rains you will avoid the outside. Don't pack your trench coat (again).
• silk sleeping bag
• extra blanket (small fleece throw)

If you have a friend who lives near enough to drive, she could bring:

• water
• foot stool
• extra lamp for table center (helps light things up after the sun goes down)

I'm sure even after four days of list making, I've forgotten something. Put it in the comments; I'll pack it next year.

July's Theme: Food

As you saw from the list of goals I am doing the NaBloPoMo thing again this month. I sort of owe it to you because of all the "oh my finger hurts" posts from the last two months. And speaking of my finger, on my last visit to the doctor (26th) they were a little disappointed that the shrivelled brown skin hadn't fallen off yet. I shouldn't have been wearing the bandage, they said. But I ask you, it was this nasty brown lump of shrivelled skin, would you go waving it in everyone's face? I thought not; hence the bandage. I was ordered to soak it twice a day and switch to a band-aid. I soaked it at work and when I went to soak it at home, it fell off. So now I look like I have a wart at the top of my finger. There are two black spots on my nail (from the stitches). Besides the small scar on the side of my hand, you'd never know that I cut the tip of my finger off just two short months ago. But I digress...

This month's theme for NaBloPoMo is food. You'd think stitching and food wouldn't mix. But there are loads of stitching designs for food.

The mother and daughter designers at Little House Needleworks and Country Cottage Needleworks have given us Cherry Pie and Chocolate Shop (LHN) and The Bakery, Ice Cream Sunday, and Summer Strawberries (CCN). Marie's Garden reminds us to Eat Good Food. Fruit shows up in fruit bowls, della Robbia wreaths, and packs. Not to be outdone, Janet Powers Originals has a whole series of veggie still lifes including onions. Unsurprisingly, there are lots of cakes. Birthday cakes, cupcakes, blueberry cheesecake--all kinds of sweet treats. Candy is widely represented from candy corn to candy canes. We profess our love for candy and get more specific about where we spend our calories. You can even find a recipe for love. We're sometimes reminded of the drudgery associated with food. There are lots of messages about diet too; something for the Atkins adherent and those who know Weight Watchers' mantra and those in deep denial.

But our most food obsessed designer has to be Casey Buonaugurio, who has brought us these tasty treats:
Carrot Cake Sampler
Cherry Cheesecake Sampler
Chocolate Cake Sampler
Cupcake Sampler
Hot Cocoa Sampler
Irish Cream Sampler
Lemon Meringue Sampler
Pineapple Upside-Down Cake
Pink Plaid Pear
Strawberries and Cream Sampler
Taco Sampler.

#30: Home Alone

I made a giant list of things to do while the dude was gone. I haven't done very many of them. But these are things I do when the dude leaves me home alone...

1. Stay up way too late. I don't know why I can't make myself go to bed. When I'm gone, he doesn't go to bed either. When we're both here, we manage to go to bed within half an hour of our bedtime.
2. Eat badly. Saturday night was different because we did "Sunday dinner" at the hibachi place. But Friday night? Bag of popcorn and two diet cokes. And things didn't go well tonight either: pasta, butter, cheese.
   
3. Clean instead of doing things on my list. I don't know what gets into me. I hate cleaning. I think it's because when I am home alone, I'm the only one responsible for mess. When the dude's here, I just resent the fact that I have to pick up after him (it's sort of irrational, because he does help).
   
4. Spend too much money. I went to Target for bras, sunglasses, and soap. Let's just say a lot of things jumped into the basket. Then I went to Lowe's and bought a sucking leaf mulcher. (Cousin's husband thinks I should return it because he has one that we can have.) And there were two trips to Joann's (mostly because different stuff was on sale on Saturday and Sunday).
   
5. Watch too much crap tv.
   
6. Enjoy the quiet. There is something wonderful about being in charge of the computer, the remote, the time you eat, the things you eat, the time you go to bed...all the comings and goings. Only one more day...
   

List #24: Photos from My Cousin's House

Yesterday, the failed Catholics, an athiest, some pagans, and a former Quaker got together and celebrated Easter. I know some people think its crazy that people who don't believe in God celebrate Christmas, but even I agree that the unbelievers celebrating Easter is nuts. Sissy almost got into the spirit. She called my cousin to find out when the church in near her was holding masses, and my cousin called around to find the answer for her. She got back to Sissy who responded, "Jesus... I was hoping for something a little later." So you can see this religion thing is really working out for her. Anyway, we managed to hide the 54 eggs for the kids only once. (I'm pretty sure two years ago we hid them one trillion times.) And only uncle dude had to go looking for them after Yay-o had hidden them. At least he was indoors. I froze my butt off "hiding" the eggs.

So, I kept my promise of bringing the camera with me, though a few things went unrecorded.

The wedding sampler (discussed here) that led to the blog name. I tried to get a close up of all those color changes, but failed. Some days I swore that each square was a different color. Of course all those HAED stitchers will think I'm just a pussy.


The finishing on the pillow for my niece. My cousin ended up cutting off the trim because someone was pulling at it and little bits of fluff were ending up everywhere. My cousin is a neat freak. It's probably for the best because it wasn't sewn on evenly.


The dragonfly tin topper. Discussed here. Very sparkly in real life.


The birth sampler that I designed to fit into the bear frame. You can see the bee table in the background--there are matching chairs and bureau too. It was quite a cute room.

List #23: Book Meme IV

These are the top 106 books most often marked as “unread” by LibraryThing’s users [AVS note: according to someone on the internet; and I can't seem to find this one's origin either. So I don't know if these are still the top 106 unread.] As usual, bold what you have read, italicize what you started but couldn’t finish, and strike through what you couldn’t stand. Add an asterisk* to those you’ve read more than once. Underline those on your to-read list.***********

I think it would be interesting to know which ones people also own but have not read since that is the point of this list. If I don't own it, I shouldn't be responsible for reading it, right? How can we mark that? There's nothing left! I'll use a + at the beginning of the title. But then, a lot of these books are one's we own but have been read by the dude; if he buys and reads them, am I responsible for reading them too?

Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell
+ Anna Karenina (I read a paragraph but they didn’t ask us to read any more of it, so I didn’t. So it’s not so much that I couldn’t finish as I just didn’t.)
Crime and Punishment
Catch-22
One Hundred Years of Solitude
Wuthering Heights
The Silmarillion
+ Life of Pi
+ The Name of the Rose
Don Quixote
Moby Dick
+ Ulysses
+ Madame Bovary
+ The Odyssey
Pride and Prejudice*
Jane Eyre
+ A Tale of Two Cities This was one of the books I took out of the library during my "summer of improvement reading" between high school and college. The only book I actually made it through was Old Man and the Sea. And a couple of chapters about American history.
The Brothers Karamazov
+ Guns, Germs, and Steel
+ War and Peace
+ Vanity Fair
The Time Traveler’s Wife
+ The Iliad
Emma*
The Blind Assassin* (dissertation material)
+ The Kite Runner (My MIL bought this for me. Maybe someday.)
Mrs. Dalloway
+ Great Expectations
American Gods
A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius
Atlas Shrugged
Reading Lolita in Tehran
Memoirs of a Geisha
+ Middlesex
Quicksilver
+ Wicked
+ The Canterbury Tales (Again, they only asked me to read parts.)
+ The Historian
+ A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man
+ Love in the Time of Cholera
Brave New World*
The Fountainhead
+ Foucault’s Pendulum
+ Middlemarch
Frankenstein*
+ The Count of Monte Cristo
Dracula
+ A Clockwork Orange
Anansi Boys
The Once and Future King
+ The Grapes of Wrath
The Poisonwood Bible
1984
Angels & Demons
The Inferno
The Satanic Verses
Sense and Sensibility
+ The Picture of Dorian Gray
Mansfield Park
One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest
To the Lighthouse
Tess of the D’Urbervilles
+ Oliver Twist (But I read the dude’s dissertation about it…)
+ Gulliver’s Travels
+ The Corrections
Les Misérables
+ The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay (The dude liked this so maybe I’ll read it.)
+ The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time (See above.)
Dune
The Prince
The Sound and the Fury If it wasn’t this one it was another Faulkner.
Angela’s Ashes
The God of Small Things
A People’s History of the United States: 1492-present
Cryptonomicon
Neverwhere
A Confederacy of Dunces A boyfriend read this to me, but I always fell asleep. We broke up. I never finished.
+ A Short History of Nearly Everything (It’s not short enough. Still, I have that challenge of completing his oeuvre.)
+ Dubliners
The Unbearable Lightness of Being (It was unbearable.)
Beloved* (dissertation)
Slaughterhouse-Five
Eats, Shoots and Leaves
The Scarlet Letter*
The Mists of Avalon
Oryx and Crake
Collapse
Cloud Atlas
The Confusion
+ Lolita
Persuasion
Northanger Abbey
The Catcher in the Rye
On the Road* (undergraduate thesis)
The Hunchback of Notre Dame
+ Freakonomics
Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance
+ Aeneid
Watership Down
Gravity’s Rainbow I want to finish this. I love Pynchon, but it’s so damn long. Though not as long as Against the Day which the dude is reading now. He has a theory about reading Pynchon—just push through and don’t worry that you can’t keep track of what is going on.
The Hobbit (I had this read to me in third or fourth grade and I didn’t really like it.)
+ In Cold Blood
White Teeth
Treasure Island
David Copperfield
The Three Musketeers

I can’t believe how many of these books I have never heard of. I’m just going to assume they are on the best seller list now and completely unworthy of my attention. Or, they are science fiction. Or maybe historical novels.

What's curious about this list, all these lists really, is the total randomness of it. I don't own all these books; they're not on my Library Thing. Should I be embarrassed about not reading them?

List #22: Worked on this Week

They promised us snow today, but instead my crocuses opened. (You'll note the lack of snow in this photo.) This was my first foray into gardening with bulbs. People in my neighborhood have lots of trouble with the squirrels and other wee beasts stealing them. Crocuses are apparently a favorite of our wildlife, but I bathed the bulbs in cayenne and sprinkled it liberally in the holes and successfully repelled all comers.

Turning to stitching, things have really devolved, people. I've cast the rotation aside entirely and taken up stitching for other people! What has the world come to?

• Mother's Day Roundabout by Heart in Hand Needlework. Started it on Saturday night while we were babysitting the kids and finished it on Monday (no sewing class this week, spring break). I've already sent it off for finishing.

• Why Men Fish by Sue Hillis Designs. My mother's birthday is in two weeks. I know she wants this for her mermaid bathroom, so it needs to be framed with glass. Why did I wait so long to start?
• 

• Even though we didn't have sewing class, I figured I could manage to put together a few strips of fabric on my own. I also quilted it. Don't look too closely, it took me a while to get the hang of the wavy lines; I stitched those with rayon thread so they'd stand out a bit more. I didn't put the wavy lines on the aqua strips because I like the geometric pattern too much to mess with it.