Starting Something

It’s snowing outside. A lot. GAH. Can’t a girl catch a break? I don’t actually need to go anywhere, but I thougtht maybe I’d go to the coffeeshop and type instead of sitting at home. Oh well.

I started a little quilt this weekend. I’m not sure who it’s for or how big it will be (although I think it will only consist of the 9 rectangles I made already) but I am liking it. I keep looking at it wistfully because I want to work on it, but I have other things to do. It’s fun to play around with fabrics with no real goal in mind.

 

In other exciting news, I bought myself a ticket to NYC for mid april. I can’t wait to eat, shop and walk my way through the city again. I’ve really been missing it lately, and it’ll be fun to spend another birthday there. Plus I will get to see this.

Oh, and I added a bunch of earrings to my etsy shop. The photos are a little gray, I’m afraid, but trust me- they are vibrant and pretty in real life. Damn snow.

Happy Spring!

This morning I woke up with a hankering for just a little something special to celebrate Easter, (more like spring time, for us. Although, look here….still snowing). We ran to the store so I could get some vinegar and I picked up a loaf of just baked french bread, too. We almost ate the whole thing instead of making bread pudding but I really do love bread pudding. I served it in my girly cups with whipped cream and it was super.

 

“Now, you can’t have any till I photograph it. Oh screw it, let’s eat!”
(Edited to add: the recipe for this pudding is in the comments on my flickr photo. I add a little heavy cream to top it off.)

After that Paul went to the studio and I stayed home dyeing eggs. I only dyed 7 since I’m really the only one who likes hard-boiled eggs. And actually, that left plenty of room for experimenting. I decided to use wine glasses to hold the dyes and they turned out to be the perfect size.  Here are the tablets dissolving in vinegar:

 

This year I wanted to try wrapping the eggs in lace, which I saw in Martha Stewart Living. On top of that, I wrapped them up tight in hosiery to hold the lace in place (seal the hosiery with a twist tie). I wasn’t sure it would work but figured I would try some other things while I was at it, too- so I also tried metallic mesh, rick rack and paper flowers. Here’s one of them about to go into the dye bath.

 

The added benefit of the hosiery is that you can run a skewer through it and then hang just part of the egg in the dye bath. As a girl I used to sit there with my wire egg dipper, ever so patiently. I once tried to make a plaid egg using all of the different dyes– I don’t recommend it.

Here’s the finished lace batch. I don’t quite understand why the lace works at resisting the dye but the pantyhose don’t affect it.  Easter magic, I say. I love the seeping in quality of it, too. On the red/yellow one, I first dyed the lace-wrapped egg in yellow, then moved it, hanging skewer style, into the red bath. The dye creeped up the hosiery and gave it a weird marbled effect, which I like.

And here are the eggs I made with the other materials. The paper flowers worked quite well- almost better than the stickers (which made the hearts). The heart egg was also wrapped in metallic mesh which gave it a cool faded grid effect. To get the yellow flowers on the blue egg, I dyed the whole egg in yellow first, let it dry, then added the flowers/hosiery combo and let it sit in the blue dye.

 

I also made one with rickrack at the far right of this photo (see me removing it here). You can see more pics of the process over at flickr. Hope you’re all having fun, wherever you are.

Oh Peanut Butter

Today is a special occassion– Paul’s classmate Caleb is having his thesis show. He’s the first of the grads to exhibit. Hooray! Since it was also his birthday a couple of days ago (and he neglected to tell anyone!) I wanted to make some cupcakes for the opening.

 

But not just any cupcakes. Mini chocolate cupcakes with peanut butter frosting.

 

Yeah, there’s that much left over. Next time I’d better cut the recipe in half. I’ve been known to eat a spoonful of peanut butter from time to time –actually, almost daily right now. It’s the protein, I say! My sister Amy used to do it and it drove my dad crazy. I guess now I will have to eat spoonfuls of frosting until it’s gone. There’s a stick of butter in there. And a cup of sugar. Recipe, you ask?

 I started off with this one, but of course modified. Remember, I only ended up needing about half of this (although I see no problem with leftovers!). Here is what I used:

1 stick (1/2 cup) butter
1 cup creamy peanut butter–buy the good brand
1 cup confectioner’s sugar– the original called for double that, but I found it sweet enough already
3 tbsp -ish heavy cream

Get everything (but the heavy cream) to room temp– if you let the butter sit  on the stove while you bake the cupcakes, it’ll be perfect. Blend the butter and peanut butter together with an electric mixer. Gradually add confectioner’s sugar. Be sure to taste it every time you add the sugar– you know, to be sure it’s just sweet enough. Drizzle a bit of heavy cream in as needed.

Soooo good. I think this would make a fantastic filling for cupcakes too– maybe added to already whipped cream. That was the original plan but I thought 50 small cupcakes was better than 20 or so large ones, for the crowd and all.

I’m going to go get fat now. Oh, maybe I’ll do the dishes first.

Yum, Version 2.

If there’s one thing I know it’s that I need to eat good food even when I’m busy. We have weeks where almost every meal is eaten out of the house, and they drive me nuts! Yuck. And I daresay that our sometimes strangely stocked pantry has made me get a little more creative.

Tonight I whipped up this gloriousness. I got the idea for the chicken from  a Kraft recipe, but modified it a lot. To start, I salted and peppered some tenderloins (as I would any meat I cook), then added some Morrocan rub from my V-day gift. That stuff is divine!  Next I put it in a glass baking dish and spread some sour cream on top of each piece (yogurt would work, too). Then I chopped a bunch of pecans and sprinkled them on top, and threw some cherry tomatoes on top of the dish for a side. I cooked it at 375 for 25 minutes and it was done perfectly. I splashed the chicken with some balsamic vinegar to finish it.

For the rice, I added the same spice mix to the water along with some olive oil. Now, the secret to rice is very low heat and patience. Once you put the lid on, don’t take it off! And once the rice has cooked for 15 minutes (or whatever the package says), turn off the stove but leave the lid on for another 10 minutes to really steam up. That’s what I did here, then I threw in the spinach and put the lid on again so that it wilted, and the texture was perfect.

I threw it all on a plate and oh my, it was delicious!! I’m no longer hungry but I still want more.  I think you could make the chicken even without the rub– a dash of cumin and sugar are the first 2 ingredients on the jar, and then everything else under the sun– parsley, chili, cinnamon, turmeric, nutmeg… you get the gist.

 The Kraft recipe had yogurt, mayo, mustard and almonds on top of chicken… not exactly my cup of tea, but a good starting point nonetheless. I made this once before with just yogurt, walnuts, and feta cheese- and that was good too (although a little bland). Any recipe that’s simply “spread stuff on top of meat and bake” is a winner in my book. Yum.

Yum.

I made some mac’n'cheese this weekend and baked it in my new ceramic dishes. It was delicious– and something about eating it in dishes I made myself made it extra yummy!

After the Fire(-ing)

We went to pick up my ceramics today since my class ended last week. It’s always suprising to see them after they are glazed- they are like entirely different pieces. I’m not in love with a lot of the glazes the studio has on hand, but I think part of it has to do with using stoneware clay. Overall I liked my porcelain (handbuilt from molds)  pieces the best, although it was nice to see I made some progress on the wheel (w/stoneware). Here are some of my favorites:

Doily Plate: Even though this cracked, I still really like it. I threw the plate on the wheel, trimmed it, then added a slip-soaked doily to the top. Strangely the crocheted part made it, but the fabric part was too solid. It burnt away in the firing (as expected) and kind of feels like a sand dollar now. I still want to expirement with this technique in the future. I’m also quite happy with my little ruffly pie crust edge.

I really love these little pyrex inspired dishes. The lace imprints on the inside didn’t show up as well as I’d hoped (in some cases) but they were lots of fun. I’d like to do more of these, too, and perfect my craftsmanship. I rolled lace into the clay and made the shapes, then painted them with an underglaze and carved the designs with a loop tool. Once fired, I stained the lace impressions and dipped it in a clear glaze.

Here is a side view.

 

I also made these little porcelain dishes…same kind of idea with the lace and woven bamboo samples. The one that looks white was actually a little filet crochet imprint of a house, but I guess I needed to apply more pressure. Next time!

And here are a couple of my wheel-thrown bowls. The one on the right is my first successful bowl and I like its uneven sides and pod-like shape. I melted a glass marble in the bottom during the firing, which made the glaze flash green, so that was pretty cool and unexpected. There’s some carving that’s hard to see in the pic as well. The blue bowl was painted with an underglaze, carved, fired, then dipped in a midnight blue glaze.

What’s really need is I could actually use these dishes and bowls in the oven and eat out of them, etc. For some reason I never do- but maybe this time. I think I may take another class and go for a big lasagna pan or something.

Oh yeah, and if you’re a member of my family or a close friend, I should have warned you to close your eyes as these might be coming your way at the next gift-giving occasion. But you’ll probably forget by then, so it’s okay.

Easter Egg Placemat

 

What is it?

 

Well, you probably already read the title. It’s an Easter Egg Placemat. Don’t worry- that’s a tiny plate, not a gigantor egg.  I made this last week in Bernina club, did some seam ripping last night (piping is hard!) and finished the decorative stitches today. I bought the kit for the class- so, no, this is not my usual color scheme, but I wanted to fit in. I did change it up a bit by sewing all of the stripes together, cutting the piece in half, and lining up the pieces perpendicularly when piecing the top.

All in all, making it was good fun. I’ve been feeling pretty lonely working from home lately. Plus I’ve barely had time to make anything for the sake of making it. Sewing straight lines up and down this mat was downright enjoyable!

I love Easter and I kind of miss celebrating it. My birthday always fell around Easter when I was a kid, and I’m sure that had something to do with it being one of my favorite holidays. Plus holidays are acceptable times to be crafty. Hopefully I’ll at least get around to some egg dyeing, even if I have to eat all of the eggs myself.

All the Pretty Horses plus a sale

Today I took another little walk to see the horses while Paul was in the studio. It was a lovely 40-something degrees today but some of the horses were still wearing blankets (which cracks me up, because I am mean).  They came running over to see if I had apples for them, but I did not.

A few stray ducks from the pond were around, too. I love seeing their little duck tracks in the snow.

 

Here’s what it looks like behind the studios (I love that shed for it’s X shaped doors).

And here’s what was going on inside.

You can see some of Paul’s recent work right here on his very own website.

p.s. I’ve placed my remaining hats in my etsy shop on sale for $20 and $25 — a steal! If you mention that you read my blog, I’ll throw in free domestic shipping too. (Send me a conversation/email first so I can adjust the price).

Bead Simple is almost here!

I have been getting a lot of mail lately, but was especially excited to receive my contributor copies of Bead Simple yesterday. Susan has been working on this book for quite a while, and it came out so great! What I love about it is that each design is shown in 3 different renditions– each with different beads and findings, which can help you visualize a project that’s just your style. It also makes it easy to think about YOUR supplies and not necessarily having to buy the exact items used in the projects, which makes it a winner in my book! Plus it is lots of fun to see what all of the guest designers made. There’s also an extensive techniques section with illustrations and clearly written instructions, so even if you’re a beginner, you can follow along.

Here’s my filigree necklace on page 97. I wanted to do something totally different but still use the same basic technique (tiers, in this case).  At the time I didn’t think this was a necklace that I would personally wear (too fancy), but now that I have it back it’s actually quite nice with a slightly-dressy top. I could use a little more glamour in my life. I’ve been bored in general with my jewelry lately, so hopefully this book will isnpire me to craft some new pieces. The book will officially be released on March 25th, but you can pre-order on Amazon if you like.

I also got a copy of this new book from Chronicle: The Pillow Book by Shannon Okey. It’s a lovely book chock full of your pillow basics, but then there are also some really fun and useful projects like pet beds, ottomans, and seat covers, too. It’s definitely a good choice if you’re trying to do some redecorating or re-energize your couch. And the best part, which seems to be included with all of the new Chronicle books, is that the patterns are all included at full size in a separate envelope on the front of the book.

 

Paul and his friends have a running joke that the difference between the apartments of men and women is the amount of pillows on their couches. I hate to admit it, but it’s true! Of course, my couch is currently covered in projects. Some day, pillow book. Some day!

Weekend Cooking

Paul and I have been eating out a lot. And when not eating out, the frozen meals have been gracing our table. I think we’ve both had enough– but I didn’t exactly feel like cooking. But this weekend we went to the grocery store to freshen up our stock and I made some fresh pesto, then used this super simple (esp. if you don’t make your own pesto) recipe for pesto chicken. The chicken came out just right– a real triumph for our crappy oven. I also made some roasted potatoes to add to the mix, and a little salad to top it off. It was super yummy.

I know the blog has been quiet lately… I just don’t have much to show. It will probably be this way for a while, so hang in there.