30
Sep, 2008

crafty, gifty projects, done!

this past weekend, i was able to give some surprise crafty gifts to some friends and now i can blog about them finally!  if you follow my flickr account, you may have already seen this quilt (i couldn’t wait!  i was so excited!)  this is the front:

and this is the back:

i’m thinking of calling it “paper boxes”, but since i’ve already taken it to i’s new home without any sort of identification label (bad, naughty quilter!) i suppose the name is inconsequential.

the pattern was inspired by several different denyse schmidt designs and also the color scheme of my friend’s living room.  this was my first time trying spray basting and although i thought it worked very well, i hadn’t realized that it would use almost an entire can of basting spray.  maybe i sprayed too heavily?  or maybe this is par for the course?  i’ll just have to decide if it’s worth the $15 a can (minus the obligatory 40% off coupon from joann’s) each time i do a quilt.  this was also my first foray into free-motion quilting and … it was definitely a learning experience!  i didn’t do the traditional wandering free-motion, i decided to interpret “free” as “do whatever motion you want!” and i chose this squares-on-a-line pattern.  i liked the way it echoed the piecing.  i don’t have a darning foot yet, so i was quilting with no foot and with the feed dogs lowered.  my top thread kept breaking (at least once every line or more).  i tried changing the needle (an 80/12–maybe i needed a 90/14?) but nothing seemed to help except for slowing way down when i was moving backwards (pulling the fabric towards me).  the stitches are crazy uneven, but i like to think that that sort of fits the wonky nature of the quilt itself.

i also used threads that would match the backgrounds, so the top and bottom threads are different.  after the thread started breaking, i went online to search for tips and found the suggestion to use the same color of thread on top and bottom to make mess-ups less visible (when the thread gets all balled up) but… too late!  oh well.  i’m really rather happy with the way it turned out and am now planning on investing in a darning foot for my machine and try lots more different free motion quilting techniques.  maybe next time i’ll even do some curves!

the second project was this fun needlepoint pillow.  if you’d like to re-create the asterisk part, i’ve included a free .pdf of the pattern (an original i created) in the “free patterns” section of my blog (see links in the bar at the top of the page).

this design was loosely inspired by some paintings (or were they collage?) that i saw last year in detroit when visiting a friend.  mr. happy stuff thought it looked like either some sort of rah-rah university colors (red and white) paraphenalia or christmas-y–like a snowflake.  so i’m sending it home with someone who doesn’t live in a red and white university town and who can look beyond the red and green to see also the blue and orange and yellow in the pillow design and see it for its true, fun little asterisk self.

Posted in crafty stuff, fun stuff | 5 Comments
29
Sep, 2008

apple pie

mr. happy stuff loves apple pie.  it’s not my favorite kind of pie, and i’m generally not so crazy about crumble toppings on things (so messy!  so dry!) so you know it’s got to be love when i decided to bake my man a dutch apple pie this past week.  i had a frozen crust that i wanted to use up, so i was hoping to find some recipe that would be really fast and easy and tasty.  i checked my favorite recipe source and the first recipe i read was this one.  i was drooling by about halfway through the recipe.  (and remember, i don’t even really love apple pie!)  but it looked too complex.  i mean, pre-cooking half the apples?  cooking down a syrup until it’s thick?

but of course, after i’d read that recipe, all others paled in comparison.  the first pie had sounded so luscious.  it had chinese five spice!  and brandy!  and actually,come to think of it, the cooked apples seemed like a pretty good idea!

so i finally decided that since i hardly ever make this pie, i should really do it right this time.  and since it was all about the love i have for my husband, why take shortcuts, right?  well, with a pre-made crust, the pie didn’t actually take all that long to make (although how anyone could fit that amount of crumble on top of one pie, i’ll never know.  i used about half.) and look at that bubbly goodness up there.  even i had to admit that with a scoop of vanilla ice cream, this pie is pretty good.  and i haven’t seen mr. happy stuff so, well, happy about any particular food for quite some time.  he came home from a frisbee game about halfway through the assembly process and sniffed the air and said, “is that pie?”  and when he came into the kitchen, he asked giddily, “is that… apple pie?”  at least he was nice enough to share a few pieces with me.

Posted in autumn, yum | 4 Comments
28
Sep, 2008

bike the barns 2008

yesterday was the second annual “bike the barns:  tour de csa.”   longtime readers might remember last year’s event and let me assure you that it was just as much fun this year.  this year, the ride featured a totally different route and four farms we hadn’t visited last year.  the ride started near enough to our house, that we just biked to the starting point (instead of trying to drive there and find and pay for parking), so we biked a grand total of about 70 miles yesterday.  we fell asleep around 9:00 last night (ergo, no time to blog).  but before we fell asleep, we enjoyed some gorgeous weather and some fantastic food.

i forgot to take any pictures at breakfast, but we both very much enjoyed the apple croissants from cafe soleil and were pleasantly surprised to see so many people (among the 500 participants!) that we knew (but hadn’t known they were doing the ride).  the ride organizers asked us to stagger our start times for traffic control reasons, so we got a bit of late start, but we were on the road by 9:00.  the first stop (26 miles into the day) was at the blue skies berry farm (one of my favorite stops at the farmer’s market each saturday) where we enjoyed apples from my favorite cider source (ela orchard) and some fantastic crumbly handfuls of granola from nature’s bakery.  riders were also invited to wander out into the raspberry patches and enjoy as many raspberries as we wanted — yum!

(at the bottom of this picture, you can see my favorite new biking accessory–keen sandals with cleats that attach to my bike pedals.  love. them. so. much.  they’re almost as comfortable (even for walking!) as a normal keen sandal and waaaaay more comfortable than any other biking shoe i’ve ever used.  i can wear them all day at work!)  lunch was the next stop, a mere 8 miles down the road at tipi produce.  although we were too late to enjoy homemade corn tortillas, we were still treated to pulled pork and pulled goat tacos and a variety of salads (cabbage, beet, kale, sprouted lentils….) and slices of watermelon for dessert.

(sorry the picture’s a little blurry.  i took “little silver” along, not “big black,” and i forgot i had to press the “macro” button if i wanted it to focus closer until the end of the day…)  after a nice break for lunch, we hopped back on the bikes for another 18 miles heading back towards town where we stopped at blue moon farm for some bruschetta:

more apples (after i bit into it, mine was very attractive to a persistent bee):

and possibly our favorite treat of the day:

homemade oatmeal cookies with homemade ice cream on top and your choice of a raspberry or a ground cherry for garnish!  oh man did that ice cream hit the spot!

we wearily climbed back onto our bikes and finished our trek home where we jumped into the shower (that’s my favorite part of long-bike-ride-days), changed into fresh clothes, then headed over to a friend’s house for a big party.  we had a wonderful time visiting with friends from out of town (hi, beans!) and met some new friends.  but like i said before, we fell asleep by about 9:00.  best kind of tired to be.

Posted in autumn, sporty stuff, yum | 2 Comments
23
Sep, 2008

camping

we went camping with church friends this weekend.  here are some of my favorite photos:

scenes from a canoe

love the clear reflection in the water on both the shot above and the one below.

can you see the walking stick insect?

how about now?

it was huge!  someone found it on their tent.  it was longer than his hand.  and it was speedy up that tree!  here’s a few more fun bugs:

Posted in autumn, photography | 3 Comments
22
Sep, 2008

something new!

normally, when i buy flowers at the farmer’s market, i tend to stick to big bunches of a single type of flower, but this last week when i was there, i noticed a booth i hadn’t paid close attention to before.  the bouquets had such great color and texture combinations, that i couldn’t resist trying something new.  isn’t it pretty?

the kitty liked it too.

Posted in Uncategorized | 1 Comment
22
Sep, 2008

a treehouse for betty

well, my quilt block for august’s common threads project is done.  do not ask me how that house is staying up in the tree, or why it’s got a super-fancy door with a doorknob, but no ladder to get up there.  you just have to use your imagination, people.  betty asked that we include our name somewhere on the quilt, so i included my initials as free-form embroidered flowers in the lower left-hand corner.

i especially had fun finally using my multi-colored spool of thread on the tree greenery:

like many of the other participants, i used fusible webbing to “glue” the pieces down, then stitched around the edges.  the funny part was that i had been thinking that this was my first foray into applique and then as i was stitching it, i started thinking, “oh, this is sort of like my alphabet quilt.…” such short memory i have.  but it is a little different to be starting from scratch, design-wise.  it’s much more like “drawing” with fabric and when it supposed to actually look like something (as opposed to just a pretty pattern or design) i quickly begin to feel my lack of training in things like “perspective” and “angles” and such.  oh well.  it was a fun experiment and i hope you like it, betty!  i myself am oddly fond of the back side of the block:

hmmm….. considering that my bobbin thread was white, there appears to be an awful lot of color on the back….. maybe i had the tension wrong?  oh well.  it’s done and i’m putting it in the mail to you the next time i can get to the post office, along with your fabric for september.  sorry it’s late!

Posted in crafty stuff | 4 Comments
18
Sep, 2008

something crafty and a few other silly things

so, i said i’d post something crafty, but i didn’t say it had to be something i’d made recently, right?  here’s an apron that i made a loooong time ago.  the design was created using a hand-cut freezer paper stencil.  i think i thought i could make more than one print using the same paper, but … not so much.  even if i’d cut more than one copy, the paper gets so curly that it’s hard to work with.  thanks, “n” for letting me photograph you in the garden!

on a completely different note, tonight in my class (i’m working towards my masters of library science and currently i’m taking an entry-level cataloging class) i was amused by two things —

1.  that catalogers (or someone anyway) has come up with a label (“field terminator”) for something in a marc record that is pretty much invisible.  yep.  they even label things that aren’t there.

2.  the word “aboutness” and the fact that apparently it’s a real word that people in my profession actually use when talking about determining subject headings.

yes, the class is dry, and yes, this is the humor, folks.  actually, the professor for this particular class is quite funny and i appreciate his efforts to inject levity into this subject.  the two things stated above were things i found funny on my own.  he also pointed out that in the a certain “table of pattern heading examples” there are two categories of animals–fishes and cattle.  and a wildebeest is a fishes.  love the logic.

(in case you’re curious, apparently, it has to do with wild v. domestic, but for some reason, it was too easy to just say “wild” and “domestic.”  i sort of like the mental picture that fishes and cattle paints anyway.)

Posted in crafty stuff, laugh, library stuff | 4 Comments
17
Sep, 2008

and still more food posts…

today’s lunch was boar’s head turkey with sliced pears, cranberry mustard and havarti cheese on a homemade wheat tortilla.  i probably should have waited for the cheese to get a little browner, but it was already melting off the sides and i just couldn’t wait any longer.  it was delicious.  yes, really pears.  try it!

i ended the meal with a watermelon milkshake.  when i was growing up, my family only really ever made two kinds of milkshakes–watermelon (when it was in season) and peanut butter.  in my adult life, i’ve learned that neither one of these flavors is usual for milkshakes, but i still love them.  a watermelon milkshake is simply seeded watermelon blended into a juice, then vanilla ice cream added until it gets thick.  yum.  even the kitty thought it was good.

paw-licking good!

hopefully my next post will include something crafty…

Posted in autumn, yum | 3 Comments
16
Sep, 2008

quickie update

I”m working on another “secret quilt” for a friend that is almost done, but since i can’t quite yet show you that, check out this double yolk egg i cracked open when i made pancakes this weekend!

isn’t that a sign of good luck or something?  or am i thinking of a chinese silver slipper buckle?

in other food prep news, i processed about 30 pounds of tomatoes this weekend (into pasta sauce, tomato juice, and a fresh salsa base (tomatoes, onions, garlic and salt)).  i’d originally wanted to can it, but i couldn’t find conclusive evidence that the addition of oil and/or garlic wouldn’t lower the ph so low that a water bath canner was dangerous.  plus, once i’d cooked the tomatoes down, it was probably only going to be about 5 pints and… i didn’t know if it was worth it.  so, hooray for a chest freezer!

Posted in Uncategorized | Comments Off on quickie update
09
Sep, 2008

little pieces of a five day (foodie) weekend

because of the quirks of my work schedule, i haven’t been to work since last thursday.  originally, i’d planned to take advantage of this stretch of time off by taking a trip to visit a friend, but in the end,  i decided to just lay low and stay home.  it’s been very relaxing.  here are the highlights:

–on friday, mr. happy stuff and i enjoyed lunch together at brasserie v.  i think i’ve only eaten there once before and i hope to go back again soon!  every single sandwich on their lunch menu (actually, pretty much all of the food on their menu) looked tasty to me.  this made my decision very difficult, but i finally settled on a muffaletta.  yum.  we also ordered frites (which came in a cute cone-shaped dish lined with parchment and a side of aioli).  the sandwich had a delicious blend of flavors and was big enough that i ate the second half for lunch the next day.  that night, i made smitten kitchens’ bourbon peach hand pies.  the bourbon wasn’t particularly noticeable, but the pies were butterrific!  i have never had a recipe with so many different “chill” cycles, but the crust did have a lovely flaky texture.

–on saturday, mr. happy stuff and i enjoyed a leisurely trip to the farmer’s market (including breakfast at ingrid’s lunchbox–mmmm….cornmeal crepe….and a to-die-for cream cheese danish from stella’s.  i don’t even usually like danish, but this one was a-maz-ing.) and then a bike ride to nearby paoli where we stopped for a picnic and shared an ice cream cone from the new “paoli peddle stop” which serves (among other things) chocolate shoppe ice cream.  the bike ride is almost 30 miles round-trip.  it felt good to be back on the bike.

–we ended saturday on a high foodie note:  dinner at muramoto.  this place has been on our “must try this” list for awhile and i think that after our experience there saturday night, we’ll probably have to go back again sometime.  oh.  my.  goodness.  we began our meal with a “bite size starter” for each of us.  i had the braised pork, miso cream cheese and peach terrine, topped with fresh tiny greens.  very rich, very tasty.  mr. happy stuff had the tempura king crab with truffled bearnaise and i seriously don’t think i’ve seen him that happy about food for a very long time.  his eyes closed, a smile spread across his face and as soon as his mouth was empty, he couldn’t stop talking about it.  he reports that it’s a good thing this dish is only one bite–it’s so rich that any more than one bite would be overwhelming.  but that one bite?  fantastic.  the second course that came was our “maki mono” (sushi rolls).  we ordered two–the first was mango, avocado and a soy sauce reduction wrapped in rice and an outer layer of thinly sliced duck.  the second was the “rainbow roll”–tuna, yellow fin, salmon, crab, avocado and avocado.  one of those fish was wrapped around the outside and there was rice wrapped around the filling and yes, the fish appeared to be raw, but … oh man.  even i (not generally a fish-eater) loved both of those rolls.  dipped in a little soy sauce, then rushed to my mouth for a burst of incredible flavors and textures.  i’d have been happy eating a whole meal of just those special sushi rolls.  our third course was the “hot dish” where i got the beef hanger steak with satsuma potato salad and miso blue cheese dressing and mr. h-s got the sauteed shrimp and marinated tofu in spicy coconut sauce, red onions, bell peppers and peanuts.  we shared the entrees between the two of us (i didn’t eat any of the shrimp, but very much enjoyed the tofu and vegetables.).  mr. h-s likened the steak to the one he ate at harvest (this is high praise.  that steak was pretty much his favorite meal ever in madison.)  the shrimp and tofu were quite spicy and the bowl of rice that they brought out to go along with it was much appreciated.  then, we just had to finish the meal with the dessert sampler plate.  mr. h-s had a view of the plate preparation area from where he sat and he’d seen lots of these dessert plates being prepared while we were eating.  sprinkled with a few leaves of this, drizzled with a syrup of that, a few edible flowers scattered over the plate… extravagantly elegant.  our sampler included the green tea “opera” cake, lemon verbena panna cotta, coconut mango pudding and chocolate cream cake.  unsurprisingly, our favorite was the chocolate cream cake.  very rich, chocolatey, smooth, and delicious.  the evening was definitely a splurge, but very worth it.

–sunday, i spent the afternoon with a friend that i haven’t had a chance to visit for a long time.  we’ve had schedule conflicts for months, but finally were able to arrange to get together to paint.  the last few times i visited her, i had admired her paintings.  she does these disarming paintings of the cutest monsters (and sometimes robots) that i just adore.  i’d asked if i could come over sometime to paint with her and so we did!  i made one painting that i really liked:

and one painting that i didn’t like so much.  reassuringly, she said that sometimes that happens and with painting, you can just paint over the thing you didn’t like and do something different.  a little more forgiving than quilting can be sometimes!  we had a wonderful afternoon, chatting and catching up over cups of hot tea and painted canvases.  she’s painting me my very own monster.  i’m so excited!

–monday was a beautifully cold drizzly day.  no, really.  it was the perfect weather for staying inside all day, feeling cozy and working on projects like canning more tomatoes and peaches.

the peaches were the colorado ones i received in my most recent fruit csa share.  i had four pint jars with cute lids, so i decided to use those.  instead of halving the peaches, i sliced them so i could fit more into the jar.  i could still only fit about two peaches per jar, but that left me three peaches from the share to enjoy fresh.  the 20 lbs. of tomatoes were from a local community farm that a friend of mine works at.  last time, i’d tried a “raw pack” method where i diced the tomatoes before packing them into jars with boiling liquid and then processing them.  the tomatoes ended up floating on top of an inch or so of semi-clear liquid.  it doens’t seem to affect the flavor, but i wanted to try cooking the tomatoes down to see if that worked better.  they turned out beautifully rich red, no weird layer of liquid, but i also only got 10 pint jars out of 20 lbs of tomatoes…  we’ll see how they taste over the winter.  i ended the day back in the swimming pool with a friend after a long hiatus while it was being re-painted over the summer.  we did a short workout and missed our third swimming companion who moved to minneapolis over the summer.

–today, yet another friend that i haven’t seen for a long time, drove into town and we enjoyed lunch at the macha teahouse,  (these cardamom cookies are yummy and have such very cute packaging.)

we did a little shopping on monroe st. and then went back to my place for some simultaneous crafting.  she worked on some cards that she sells and i began cutting fabric for my common threads quilt (i’m so excited! september is my month to send fabric!).

although i wouldn’t mind having another five days off, i’m feeling quite rested, happy, and very well fed.  it was so wonderful to spend time with friends this weekend.  like lots of little, teeny tiny vacations all smooshed together.  and i didn’t even have to pack a suitcase.

Posted in crafty stuff, reviews, sporty stuff, stuff that makes me smile, summer, yum | 3 Comments