tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12572280388384237022024-03-13T18:53:29.286-05:00Hullion ArtworksCreativity made tangible.Dielahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05756275731069816054noreply@blogger.comBlogger485125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1257228038838423702.post-43040181459220717832016-07-01T05:51:00.000-05:002016-07-01T05:51:06.874-05:00Wow... Hey! Long time no write...My grandmother who raised me passed away in the last few days of 2015, and it's been a maelstrom of feelings and activities here ever since. I have flown to Minnesota twice since then, and boy has that process changed since I last flew 20 years ago.<br />
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My youngest has graduated from High School.<br />
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I am now in the process of purchasing a house in Minnesota and will be moving in a month. This has been a long time coming over the last four years, so do not be concerned that I am making great sweeping changes in my grief. Believe me, this was overdue.<br />
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Where I am moving I will no longer be on satellite internet service with its monthly bandwidth cap. Hallelujah! Hopefully this will translate to more frequent posts to all my blogs (yes plural). Especially to <a href="http://hullionmediareview.blogspot.com/">my movie review blog</a> since viewing and posting can become a daily thing, any time of the day I wish (for a change).<br />
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<br />Dielahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05756275731069816054noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1257228038838423702.post-88083530315468155672015-11-25T03:18:00.001-06:002015-11-25T03:18:37.184-06:00I haven't posted for a while...... so here's a picture of a possum I took back in 2012.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjqeE9j7OOYj0S6oz1aajzVC3Fxh379EBGXJYPL8TLNP0EK4_XHZFtyHQf4IPhbVgeHz4m04N2tONIMP3qrcfSARyjfoH96BFmIYruX0tWt3hZ9EiBAlC2-fUTzjGg7Npq0Rqsn7V6ABnf5/s1600/20120413_1.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjqeE9j7OOYj0S6oz1aajzVC3Fxh379EBGXJYPL8TLNP0EK4_XHZFtyHQf4IPhbVgeHz4m04N2tONIMP3qrcfSARyjfoH96BFmIYruX0tWt3hZ9EiBAlC2-fUTzjGg7Npq0Rqsn7V6ABnf5/s400/20120413_1.JPG" width="400" /></a></div>
<br />Dielahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05756275731069816054noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1257228038838423702.post-52736175156880575472015-03-21T08:00:00.000-05:002015-03-21T08:00:02.940-05:00Spring Planting<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjwznH8x6LaDTIv4ZHU_TVBXORL7ygYj5bd8SFXMVYz316lLUyFZ5scOCgomXHirOyZJzXJJzSdVu7-4PJ5rmXzMgu_yAEDV0qkVoyfWpXSL5aRGwAtpfoQt1ERzXJcdCvcqXKh8kJXqm5A/s1600/001.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjwznH8x6LaDTIv4ZHU_TVBXORL7ygYj5bd8SFXMVYz316lLUyFZ5scOCgomXHirOyZJzXJJzSdVu7-4PJ5rmXzMgu_yAEDV0qkVoyfWpXSL5aRGwAtpfoQt1ERzXJcdCvcqXKh8kJXqm5A/s1600/001.JPG" height="223" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Zucchini and cucumbers</td></tr>
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Two-thirds of the garden is in, but only if you count the scraggly remains of the cabbages I planted last fall. The dog carnage was nearly total, though I did manage to replant a few that weren't thrown halfway across the yard by digging paws. There is now a nice hardware cloth fence around my beds. Unfortunately I used all but three of my garden stakes to hold it up.</div>
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I would have all my beds finished, except Burpee seems to think I don't know when to plant, and is holding my order until the "appropriate time for your planting zone". We're close to the Gulf. I've had to turn on the air conditioner. I think the danger of frost has passed.</div>
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My rosemary survived the winter in spectacular fashion. For some reason our oak tree doesn't drop its dead leaves until the spring... I'm not sure if it's the clogging infestation of spanish moss, or if it's just a stubborn tree, but believe it or not I raked that yard just last week to add decomposing leaves to the bottoms of my garden beds, and now it's like I never raked at all. I'm leaving it in with the rosemary to act as a mulch, but I'm going to have to wait until the yard dries out a bit before I hit the rest of it again. Three days straight of rain, and we were approaching an ark scenario.</div>
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Rory, the smooth fox terrier, loves the puddles. He'll go splashing through them and get confused when the other dogs won't join in the messy fun. He's gotten huge since we got him last fall. He was the size of the chihuahua, starving and covered in fleas. He's now bigger than my daughter's dog; she's some sort of massive corgi-something mix and happens to be the exact same color as Mr. Pickles, the aforementioned chihuahua.</div>
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Thanks to a rusting old chain link fence, and dogs who love to chase cats and squirrels, we have a major undertaking coming up, where we're going to have to replace a sizable chunk of our chain link material. They're like bats... they can squeeze through the smallest fricking opening and go running down the street. If it wasn't for the nearby train tracks, I might let them roam, but they're just far too close.</div>
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I'll update this when the tomato and pepper plants arrive. I have tried starting my own seeds, but I just have far better luck with purchased plants. I'm hoping the hardware cloth will also cut down on the number of hookworms I get on my tomatoes... they really did a number last year.</div>
<br />Dielahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05756275731069816054noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1257228038838423702.post-29140547907426960052015-03-03T04:00:00.000-06:002015-03-03T04:02:15.132-06:00Garden Woes and Hope of SpringAfter my previous post five months ago, a few things happened. <br />
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One, more blossoms appeared on my pepper plant, and quite a few ended up fruiting, so that was not the last pepper of the season. As a matter of fact, I just picked the last tiny pepper off the plant four days ago and sauteed it for topping an Italian sausage I had for dinner.<br />
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Two, I planted my cabbages, broccoli, and cauliflower... however the dogs didn't like this arrangement and dug most of them up for me. So no sauerkraut from the garden, though there will be a nice, big, beautiful hardware cloth fence around the beds soon, as I've ordered my plants for this summer's garden and the dogs also made a hole in the chain-link fence, so when we picked up the repair materials for that, it was quite easy to get the other stuff. It was practically on the same shelf.<br />
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Three, I have shifted my blogging focus. A nice gardening blog is all well and good, but not when the author is a craptastic gardener. The dog fiasco didn't help much. So I've started an additional blog over at <a href="http://hullionmediareview.blogspot.com/">Knitter's Media Reviews</a> to focus on movie, television, and book reviews with an eye for recommendations for fellow knitters and crocheters who like to have something running on the TV while they work. I will still be posting my personal journal-style posts here, but they will probably be much less frequent on average.<br />
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I know, I haven't posted in four months, and you're wondering how I could possibly post *less* than that, but I did say "average". Over there I'm trying for a consistent five posts a week. Here I've posted 482 posts at an average of 5.75 posts per month (I started this thing back in 2008, can you believe it?!?)<br />
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Anyway... I'm not hitting new movies very often, but I am working my way through the Netflix and Amazon Prime catalogs in a fairly regular fashion. I review mostly independent, action, sci-fi/fantasy, and rom-coms that strike me as interesting or have someone I like in them, but they're usually on the older side. Come <a href="http://hullionmediareview.blogspot.com/">check it out</a> and see if my taste is the same as yours... and if it is you may find a hidden gem or avoid a real clunker.Dielahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05756275731069816054noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1257228038838423702.post-32984909201838583532014-10-04T12:51:00.000-05:002014-10-05T06:11:32.642-05:00The last summer crop, three peppers and a blossom.<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The last summer crop, three peppers and a blossom.</td></tr>
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I'm trying to put a post together... the first part in a series about growing your own cabbage and then making your own sauerkraut. Unfortunately between Burpee sending my seedlings, but then taking a week to get here, UPS having a delay with one of their pallet trucks, and other delays, the first post is about a week later than I wanted.<br />
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However, I do have two new garden beds installed. I just have to get about four more bags of dirt to fill them (we're prone to flooding in this area, so I don't want to create any low spots in my yard by just shifting it) and we can get this thing started.<br />
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Warning, there are a lot of Amazon affiliate links in this post. Help a sister out and click 'em if you're interested. I only get compensation if you order something within a certain time frame, so feel free to browse all you like.<br />
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I have twelve cabbage seedlings, six broccoli seedlings, and six cauliflower seedlings on the way. The broccoli I will make into florets for the freezer, shredding the stem parts and adding that to the cabbage for some of the kraut. The cauliflower is my favorite part of my home-canned jardinere. Okay, the pickled cauliflower and the pickled carrots. The celery is actually quite good too, not mushy at all, which was a surprise from last-year's batch. <br />
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I got two more beds very cheaply on Amazon... <a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B003W040OC/ref=as_li_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=B003W040OC&linkCode=as2&tag=tilandrasnarthex&linkId=VKQPEXGAYAQSUD7F">Greenland Gardener 8-Inch Raised Bed Double Garden Kit</a>. Compared to other raised bed kits, this is pretty inexpensive. What cheesed me off though was that I didn't do the proper math, and didn't realize they weren't a full eight feet long. So now that they're lined up next to my full-length cedar bed, they're coming up short. This is gnawing at my OCD/Asperger's side to no end. If I'm still here next year, I am totally getting two more of the short beds and installing them on the other side of the cedar bed so it is symmetrical.<br />
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They are super-simple to set up... it's just a set of boards with inter-connecting tabs and grooves. Once the boxes were in the back yard, I could set them up by myself with no problems and no tools... although I did have a rubber mallet handy. They're made of a composite of wood and recycled plastic, so I expect them to last for quite a while. The color is a bit... blah. I considered painting them, but don't want the chemicals near my food crops.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The dogs helped with this one. :/</td></tr>
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I always put down a weed barrier of some type. For this pair I splurged on a roll of <a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B005H156GU/ref=as_li_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=B005H156GU&linkCode=as2&tag=tilandrasnarthex&linkId=OCWIOFCFA4KYX7NL">weed barrier landscape cloth</a>... mostly because I wanted to start a barrier between the beds so I wouldn't have to use the trimmer to keep the grass down. This allows me to make the space between the beds a little narrower than normal, too. Eventually I will fill this space with pea gravel and stepping stones I make myself. Inside the beds I also put down weed barrier cloth in overlapping layers. I topped that with cardboard boxes (what do you think I do with all my Amazon boxes? Compost and weed barriers, baby). The Amazon boxes use soy ink, so I'm not too worried about those... except the shipping labels, which come off a standard printer. I peel those off as best I can.<br />
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On top of the cardboard, I put down <a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B003MOD2HY/ref=as_li_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=B003MOD2HY&linkCode=as2&tag=tilandrasnarthex&linkId=IZ7XHHKRX7YM6NYN">a brick of coconut coir</a> that I've re-hydrated in a plastic storage bin. That's one 11-pound brick in each segment of the garden bed, so I put down four in total. I am thinking about another four, however, as the large bags of potting soil from Walmart or Home Depot are a) friggin' expensive, comparatively and b) of terrible quality. It's supposed to be potting soil, and it's got more wood chips in it than most bags of topsoil or mulch. It's like wood chips and bits of Styrofoam. And I'm really not happy about Styrofoam, but most of their "garden soil" bags ask for them to be mixed 50/50 with local soil... and I've already stated why I don't want to dig one part of my yard to move it elsewhere.<br />
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The coconut coir is NOT a nutrient rich growing medium though, so I will have to seriously amend it with compost and liquid fish/seaweed fertilizer.<br />
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Now... figuring out the most sane and humane way to keep my dogs out of the garden beds. :/<br />
<br />Dielahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05756275731069816054noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1257228038838423702.post-33934915941353882862014-09-16T15:27:00.000-05:002014-09-16T15:27:08.025-05:00Bread and Cheese<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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Hey look! I grew food! Not quite a pound, but it's a start. If the hookworms hadn't eaten my only (so far) ripe tomato, that'd be more like three pounds. It was a big tomato... sigh.<br />
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Not only is bread and cheese an excellent, inexpensive, delicious, and quick meal... it's a good morning of activity. I had a gallon of milk that had been purchased two weeks ago but had only been opened a few days ago and was barely dented. I knew it was going to turn, and soon. So, craving lasagne (as one does) I decided to make it into some nice ricotta. It's pretty simple.<br />
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Add half a gallon of milk and the juice of two lemons (I used limes, actually) to a cold, cold saucepan. Stir briefly. Put on very low heat and add a thermometer with a temperature alarm (easiest) or regular thermometer. Heat sloooooowly to 175°F. This should take nearly an hour. DO NOT STIR during this time. when it reaches temperature, turn up the heat to medium and reset the temp alarm to 200°. DO NOT STIR. It should reach temperature in about five minutes. When it does, remove from heat. Let stand for ten minutes, then pour into a colander lined with cheesecloth (why do you think they call it that? Hah). Let drain for ten minutes, then refrigerate. Sprinkle a little salt if you like, you're done.<br />
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I like to drain it over a bowl to save the whey. It's really good for making bread... which leads me up to my bread-making portion of the morning.<br />
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Basic Bread<br />
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This is a recipe based on King Arthur Flour's Supermarket Italian Bread, and I was going to call my variation that, when I realized that what makes it Italian no longer applied. I don't put on the sesame seeds. I'm using whey instead of water. Heck, it's technically not even bread, it's sandwich rolls because I portioned them out in 4.6 ounce blobs and made them into a hoagie-shaped roll.<br />
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The whey from the cheesemaking gives it a bit of sourdough twang, but not the depth of true sourdough. It's packed with protein though which is why you can add extra moisture (I upped the whey by half a cup over the recipe's standard water) and still have a strong dough that will hold up under its own weight.<br />
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Ingredients:<br />
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<li id="IngredientLine">4 cups flour</li>
<li id="IngredientLine">1/4 cup dried potato flakes </li>
<li id="IngredientLine">1/4 cup nonfat dry milk</li>
<li id="IngredientLine">2 teaspoons salt</li>
<li id="IngredientLine">2 teaspoons sugar</li>
<li id="IngredientLine">2 teaspoons <br />instant yeast</li>
<li id="IngredientLine">1 1/2 cups lukewarm leftover whey, or 1 1/4 cups water</li>
<li id="IngredientLine">3 tablespoons olive oil (optional)</li>
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<span id="Instructions">Place all the ingredients, in order, in the bowl of a stand mixer, or large mixing bowl. Stir the dough for two minutes on lowest speed or by hand.
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adding more water or flour as needed. </span></div>
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<span id="Instructions">Cover the dough and allow it to rise for 1 hour, or until it's doubled in bulk.</span></div>
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<span id="Instructions">For Italian Loaves, transfer the dough to a lightly greased work surface and divide it into
two pieces. Shape each piece into a smooth 16" log. Place the logs into
the two wells of a lightly greased Italian bread pan, cover, and let
the loaves rise until very puffy, about 1 hour.</span></div>
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<span id="Instructions">For Sandwich Rolls, divide into eight pieces and roll into rough logs. Sprinkle a half-sheet pan with cornmeal and lay out the rolls four across in two rows, flattening slightly into oval shapes. Cover and let rise until rolls are puffy. </span></div>
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<span id="Instructions">Slash the loaves or rolls diagonally,
making 3 slashes in each, and immediately put them in the oven. Bake in a
preheated 400°F oven for about 25 minutes, until they are golden
brown. For the crispiest crust, turn off the oven, prop the door open,
and allow the bread to cool in the oven.</span><br />
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<span id="Instructions">So that's how I spent my day. What have you been doing? :D </span></div>
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<br />Dielahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05756275731069816054noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1257228038838423702.post-43541777949720115642014-09-10T07:05:00.000-05:002014-09-10T07:05:15.773-05:00School and Other Distractons<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhOd8E_0z_A3SZ7y3y93idMnj284r-BoxCb3_x_f-1kqmXpQGmKYXa2cj3Rkk2jWCfJBvnOqiQ-vK3VnvIkdN9KIZBr6t_0BFFjWCmmQaTnmlGSA1JwNNhHVwBNUHNpRoe47KIhyIZteQXN/s1600/20111017_7.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhOd8E_0z_A3SZ7y3y93idMnj284r-BoxCb3_x_f-1kqmXpQGmKYXa2cj3Rkk2jWCfJBvnOqiQ-vK3VnvIkdN9KIZBr6t_0BFFjWCmmQaTnmlGSA1JwNNhHVwBNUHNpRoe47KIhyIZteQXN/s1600/20111017_7.JPG" height="170" width="320" /></a></div>
I am hoping this will be what's coming later this month... jars of pickles as far as the eye can see.<br />
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My daughter has been back to school for two weeks now, and the routine is starting to come together. She's taking some kick-ass classes I wish I could have taken when I was her age (digital art and animation? Yeah, our computers were all tied into a single console unit that was the size of a classroom; that didn't happen.) I'm rather jealous.<br />
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The garden has produced its first pickle-sized cuke (I planted them really, really late) with many more on the way, and the ginormous tomatoes are finally starting to get some color. I am a bit bummed that more of the blossoms didn't set with fruit... all those damn bees getting into my house, and a couple of them can't wander over to the garden and help with pollination? Arg.<br />
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I spent last Thursday and Friday making jam... one batch strawberry-rhubarb, and one batch peach-apple. Had a bit of trouble with the peach setting up... the apples did NOT help with fruit pectin in the least. Had to process the batch twice. Fortunately I am using my new <a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0051PDXCQ/ref=as_li_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=B0051PDXCQ&linkCode=as2&tag=tilandrasnarthex&linkId=QI7BOZEO4KWJ4B6C">Tattler reusable canning lids</a>, so it wasn't a costly problem. I only had to replace the non-reusable lids on the two jars I'm planning on giving as gifts.<br />
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I also managed to completely goober up my tea towels with sticky jam stuff. Here's hoping they wash out.<br />
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<a href="http://www.spoonflower.com/fabric/3440596" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;" title="Reflection5 by kelleecarr on Spoonflower - custom fabric"><img alt="Reflection5" src="http://s3.amazonaws.com/spoonflower/public/design_thumbnails/0344/0596/rReflection5_shop_preview.png" height="171" width="200" /></a></div>
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One new piece went up on <a href="http://www.redbubble.com/people/tilandra/portfolio">RedBubble</a>, and fifteen fabric designs went "live" on <a href="http://www.spoonflower.com/profiles/kelleecarr">Spoonflower</a>. Check em out if you like.Dielahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05756275731069816054noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1257228038838423702.post-12573033418037973612014-09-03T06:14:00.000-05:002014-09-04T13:20:45.251-05:00Gardening Roadblocks<div style="text-align: center;">
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhTyIZA9KyXMALnZRgUu-oPVrRDqylEDhbYkJ3gXI0AXyQ4bEr86rnRIQ-CZMomN27b7XUnClTPDH5nDKFPO9LmOJZoAmadutlJlJ0mpGSUL6yMG-mPgjj7eiH8fyzKYpc21FFAFCdSvIGQ/s1600/20120802_4cropped.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhTyIZA9KyXMALnZRgUu-oPVrRDqylEDhbYkJ3gXI0AXyQ4bEr86rnRIQ-CZMomN27b7XUnClTPDH5nDKFPO9LmOJZoAmadutlJlJ0mpGSUL6yMG-mPgjj7eiH8fyzKYpc21FFAFCdSvIGQ/s1600/20120802_4cropped.jpg" height="200" width="200" /></a></div>
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Inspired by the resounding near-success of my late-planted tomato and pepper plants, I have decided to put in a second-summer crop (most likely a marketing term, but what the heck, it fits) of cabbages and other brassicas.<br />
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I could NOT get my basil seeds to sprout this summer. In fact, there are four spots in my new raised garden bed that I direct-sowed SIX TIMES and nothing happened. Either my seed storage is terrible (a distinct possibility) and I killed my stash of seeds, or a certain company that will not be named has a terrible germination rate if the seed is older than one year. I'm leaning towards the first one, since I also had seeds from a second company that failed to produce anything.<br />
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So what I did to remedy the situation was to take my culinary sprouting skills and apply them to garden seed sprouting, then plant the few seeds that sprouted in the jar. And it worked! They're coming up.<br />
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It's pretty sad, though, when I got better results from a bag of beans from the grocery store (a few white navy and kidney beans reserved before making a batch of Boston Baked Beans this week) than anything in my seed stash. Maybe the porch where I keep my box of seeds is too hot in the summer and too cold in the winter, or maybe it's the weird humidity levels that yo-yo up and down, or maybe the stock I bought from both the unnamed internet company and my local Home Depot was old before I ever got it. In any case, those empty spots are now almost filled, and hopefully the first frost will hold off till very late in November (our Texas norm is mid-November, so that's not unreasonable).<br />
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I had really, really wanted to grow my own pumpkins this year. I love our local pick-your-own, but it is such a pain in the butt to get to in the summer for strawberries (cars are lined up for two miles just to get onto the parking lot, and that's AFTER they changed/updated their whole driveway and parking system) and the pumpkin patch situation before Halloween and Thanksgiving is only marginally better.<br />
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Yes, I have made my pumpkin pies from whole, roasted pumpkins. And I'll do it again, because it's delicious. And it's such a <a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0062252550/ref=as_li_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=0062252550&linkCode=as2&tag=tilandrasnarthex&linkId=GAXPBCEDJNC7L3YJ">Real Food</a> thing to do, doesn't take a lot of time (attended time, that is... the oven does most of the work), and you can feel good about the ingredients. And it's a 1-to-1 swap of canned solid pack pumpkin to roasted pumpkin flesh. Just lose the outer rind and mash it up or run it through a food mill. Plus the whole pumpkins last in the "root cellar" really well, or the roasted mash can be frozen or canned in a pressure canner.<br />
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Anyway, I'm looking forward to September when the unnamed company will be shipping my seedling brassicas. I didn't have much luck with their seeds this year, but the 50% off plants I planted in June are going nuts. Here's hoping the trend continues.Dielahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05756275731069816054noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1257228038838423702.post-943347249490877752014-09-01T05:53:00.000-05:002014-09-01T05:53:32.296-05:00Preparedness? Sure... in a healthy way<br />
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In sharing about my life, I'm pretty sure I've shared the fact that my daughter is on the autism spectrum, and that I strongly suspect I am also based on the reading I did after my daughter's diagnosis. I have this weird mixture of craving attention and recognition while being completely anti-social. And aren't blogs perfect for that?<br />
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I've been reading a lot of books lately, mostly because of <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Kindle-eBooks/b/?_encoding=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=390957&ie=UTF8&linkCode=ur2&node=9578129011&pfShowFeatures=&tag=tilandrasnarthex&linkId=E2UCHXDB7U64ENPN">Amazon's new lending program, Kindle Unlimited</a>. With a Prime membership you can check out ten titles at a time, turn them in when you're done, and check out more. One at a time, or all ten at once, it makes no difference.<br />
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I cannot tell you how much money this has saved me, especially in the cooking, gardening, and prepper genres. I no longer have to spend $10 on a title, only to find out the person has poor taste, poor writing skills, created a deceptive title for quick cash, or is Paranoid Beyond Belief. Seriously, some preppers think the National Guard is going to be marching down our streets *tomorrow* grabbing the Big Macs and rifles out of our hands and making us stand in line to beg for a cup of rice. Some of those people are freaking scary.<br />
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BUT... being the person on the spectrum that I am, I am a big enough worrier that I DO believe in being prepared. I have no expectations about WHEN I'm going to need these things, but the scary preppers do, and that's the difference. They're motivated by the panic that they may already be too late. Me, I'm motivated by the adage "better safe than sorry". To be honest, after living through Hurricane Katrina, then Hurricane Ike just a short time later, and a couple of instances where utilities just went out for days with no apparent reason (other than the local electric or water company was abysmally incompetent), I prepare because I do not like the feeling of scrambling to make sure my family stays healthy and fed.<br />
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I mean, what would you do if you opened the kitchen tap tomorrow, and nothing came out? You'd run to the store and buy a jug of water, right? But what if you're in the midst of an emergency, like a hurricane or storm watch, got to the store and it was all purchased already? Or worse, the stores were closed? You'd be standing in the yard with a bucket, praying for rain. Not a happy feeling.<br />
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So I prep where I can. I believe in having a pantry of food that you can draw from if your spouse loses their job. I believe in gardening for your own food. Not only is it <a href="http://stress.about.com/od/generaltechniques/a/gardening.htm">therapeutic</a>, but with grocery prices <a href="http://www.fin24.com/Debt/News/Food-prices-up-49-in-5-years-20130602">increasing on an average of almost 50% over the last five years</a>, it's an economic necessity. I still haven't managed to make rain barrels to capture and store water yet, but I plan to. You'll get the necessity the first time you cut up a chicken, go to the kitchen sink to wash the salmonella off your hands, and nothing comes out of the tap. Yeah, that was a fun day.<br />
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At the very least, I believe every grownup in America, whether you have a family or not, should have enough food in the house to live for at least a month. Even if you are responsible enough to have money saved up in your account, if you lost your job tomorrow would you want to see that money dwindle away on food? You may need that to go job hunting... new suits, running to Kinko's for a nice resume printing, or gas money. Plus, canned or stored food can be more convenient than fast food when you're tired from hitting the job market. I mean, it's already in your house, how much more convenient can you get? And then if you haven't got a job by the end of the month, you will have saved money otherwise spent. Am I right? <br />
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So I say be prepared. Don't make me trot out the story about the ant and the grasshopper.Dielahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05756275731069816054noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1257228038838423702.post-28006947465528874682014-08-29T05:59:00.001-05:002014-08-29T06:01:13.085-05:00Wildlife Be Crazy, Yo<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhuuJDjgySntjsoKZUPQgUgGF2NH2l9SYZOv2Fg30kt4PDuwtD3oOsraBdWWv-FBZJPHwudOqpThfqJcdyBgN4b4PgaOEDk4N9vSdvSewQmAD5k6xvlZ2YWDlqV-dLxMcTxt9GdLX0zsOs1/s1600/BAMF2Small.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhuuJDjgySntjsoKZUPQgUgGF2NH2l9SYZOv2Fg30kt4PDuwtD3oOsraBdWWv-FBZJPHwudOqpThfqJcdyBgN4b4PgaOEDk4N9vSdvSewQmAD5k6xvlZ2YWDlqV-dLxMcTxt9GdLX0zsOs1/s1600/BAMF2Small.jpg" height="266" width="400" /></a></div>
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So I'm doing dishes at the kitchen sink, minding my own business, when I notice this weird, zig-zaggy spiderweb. First thought that flits through my mind is that my daughter had been playing with silly string out in the yard. Then I notice the big eight-legged creepy-crawly floating in the middle of it. I then bravely stepped two inches out my front door and <a href="http://www.redbubble.com/people/tilandra/works/12518370-bamf-spider">snapped this with a telephoto lens</a>. From way, far away.<br />
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That was five days ago, and that wench is still there. Mocking me. I feel like I've got things crawling on my skin every time I spot her. It's unnerving. And she's the size of a saucer. You're going to have to take my word for it, because there's no effing way I'm getting close enough to put something in the shot for scale.<br />
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An internet friend managed to make a possible species match, the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Argiope_aurantia">Argiope aurantia</a>. If you look at the shot of its underside, it's almost a perfect match. It says they sometimes eat the males after mating.<br />
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Okay, she can hang out for a while. Kill a few wasps, and we'll call it even, lady.Dielahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05756275731069816054noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1257228038838423702.post-42438903308389832092014-08-22T08:18:00.003-05:002014-08-22T08:18:45.128-05:00The Difference a Week Makes<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhHfmKcPHrzck0hqx-pzZL76gvC-KxhskHsOwQlT20T5MJlIFq8lO0ywzgCcb_IA8SOg_v_WGwcrsD19Nax0-aOIC43jKHXkMCyK3ctqPLbIqAVB72wvaQDZGt8URnBsxulnlowZA1yRipt/s1600/20140821_4small.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhHfmKcPHrzck0hqx-pzZL76gvC-KxhskHsOwQlT20T5MJlIFq8lO0ywzgCcb_IA8SOg_v_WGwcrsD19Nax0-aOIC43jKHXkMCyK3ctqPLbIqAVB72wvaQDZGt8URnBsxulnlowZA1yRipt/s1600/20140821_4small.JPG" height="266" width="400" /></a></div>
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So there's the same pepper you saw last week, as it appeared yesterday. Don't get excited... we ate it last night. I had some shredded pork in the freezer, so I fried up the pepper with some onions and made homemade flour tortillas from a recipe on the back of a 25lb. bag of flour. Awesomely delicious. I think this is also the first time I made flour tortillas where I wasn't completely disappointed with the thickness when they were cooked. Let me put it this way... you could see through the dough a little bit when I was done rolling them out. I think the proper term is "paneing" as in a window pane. Also, I may or may not have used rendered bacon fat in the dough instead of the listed shortening. Ahem.<br />
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I'm on my last square for a comfort project for a friend who survived a disaster. After that the crafting for the Etsy shop begins again in full earnest. Today, however, is <a href="http://diela-kcdesign.blogspot.com/2012/02/friday-fun-once-again-its-mdo.html">Mom's Day Off</a>. I have plenty of posts on the subject (okay, I know of two) but I did want to get these thoughts down today before I blinked and realized yet another week had passed.<br />
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I'm already looking at plants for fall planting and harvest (brassicas, mostly... that's your cabbage, broccoli, etc.) and deciding if I'm digging a new bed for garlic. Garlic is a little... committed. And I was strangely reluctant to actually use last year's crop. It was just so pretty once it'd been cured and braided.<br />
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The teenager starts back to school on Monday. So now I'm going to have to start setting my alarm and (gasp) setting the parental time controls on the internet so she's not up until 2am. But I will have uninterrupted days with the dogs again. If only I could send those crazy kids off to school, too. Especially the shoe chewer.<br />
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<br />Dielahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05756275731069816054noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1257228038838423702.post-76987966024654962142014-08-13T10:15:00.000-05:002014-08-13T10:17:06.070-05:00This Week At Hullion Arts...I took photographs.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgXaATfAPt8lJm2WHejl3e5Fg8oIxaz1gwhACbtAmgoXDeWzcg5ZMjwTXqY0gW_viBsO0AwzicWrenKHTRYhaXo3UsbW-gdJ2aLoN-4BicwL_lP5TYfYGRdTsMn58g0Y7JvqQZOM3Uz5qK7/s1600/20140812_14.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgXaATfAPt8lJm2WHejl3e5Fg8oIxaz1gwhACbtAmgoXDeWzcg5ZMjwTXqY0gW_viBsO0AwzicWrenKHTRYhaXo3UsbW-gdJ2aLoN-4BicwL_lP5TYfYGRdTsMn58g0Y7JvqQZOM3Uz5qK7/s1600/20140812_14.JPG" height="200" width="151" /></a></div>
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I drew stuff.<br />
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It's on <a href="http://www.redbubble.com/people/tilandra/works/12446611-over-my-shoulder?p=art-print">my RedBubble</a><br />
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I crocheted several rounds on a new doily, and did red motifs for a poinsettia dimensional doily. Lack. Of. Focus.<br />
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My problem is that even though I make very piddly amounts on my RedBubble stuff (20%... unless I mark it up outrageously) it's the format where I feel the most inspiration right now. While crochet and embroidery are nice and relaxing, they are also soooooo very slow when it comes to cranking out product. And I feel this need to put a lot of work out there... I feel like I've been sleepwalking for ten years and just got my artsy mojo back.<br />
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And yet I have a ton of unfinished WIPs that need to be addressed. Not the least of which is the handwoven shawl that is still on my loom from before we moved TWO YEARS AGO. Okay, I know why I haven't wanted to tackle that one... the warp tension got all messed up when we moved the loom, and I don't have the heart to dig in and see if I can rescue it, or if I'm going to have to cut it off. It takes me a full day to warp the loom... I just don't know if I could do it. Plus about ten knitting WIPs that I'm scared to work on after what the new dog did chewing on my crochet thread.<br />
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The garden is going awesome. I have peppers and tomatoes that are working up to getting ripe. I'd have been harvesting for a long time now if I'd gotten off my butt and planted in April and not June, but then I wouldn't have gotten those garden-ready plants from Burpee at 50% off.<br />
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If every single tomato blossom ended up with a fruit, theoretically I'd have over thirty pounds of tomatoes. These plants are *supposed* to bear 2lb. individual tomatoes. Not coincidentally, 2lbs of tomatoes is what you need for one quart of canned tomatoes. I would imagine that would work out to a pint of sauce, or a half pint of paste maybe? Anyhoo, considering the number of bees *inside* my house, I'd have more than just the one pollinated blossom outside my house. Maybe it puts out so many blooms because it only wants to support one tomato at a time and it's making sure there's plenty left alive for the next one? Don't ask me, I'm tomato-stupid.<br />
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But the pepper plant, now... that's got five fruits on it in varying stages. The original one is just about to start turning color. I'm thinking stuffed peppers, or pre-cut frozen bags for Italian beef sandwiches. Oh yum. I just wish my zucchini wasn't so puny. I'd be pickling those suckers.Dielahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05756275731069816054noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1257228038838423702.post-13421852424336668192014-08-04T04:40:00.000-05:002014-08-04T04:42:05.100-05:00Yeah, I'm Weird That Way<br />
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I re-open my dormant Etsy shop to sell my doilies, and the pixels are barely dry on the screen (can I reinvent the metaphor?) when I get obsessed with embroidery and start stitching purses, tea towels, and whatever I can get my hands on. List those, and now I'm off doing watercolor art for <a href="http://www.redbubble.com/people/tilandra/portfolio">Redbubble</a> and <a href="http://www.spoonflower.com/profiles/kelleecarr?sub_action=designs">Spoonflower</a> (Spoonflower designs are still going through the vetting process, so it's empty right now. Bookmark for later!). I keep switching revenue streams.<br />
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I need to focus.<br />
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I think I'm desperately searching for a workflow/method that helps promote my zen. There is a <a href="http://www.gofundme.com/by0c4k">lot of stress in my life right now</a> with an alcoholic husband in denial, three zany dogs, and a child on the autism spectrum. Between my allergies, side-effects from anti-histamines, and other factors, I've been having panic attacks. Zen and calm are very important.<br />
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Am I sharing too much right now? Probably. But it feels relevant.<br />
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There's also the fact that setting up for clean, crisp Etsy photos is a pain in the butt. The only unused corner of the downstairs is the area by the fireplace, and it's unused for a reason.... bees. Somehow honey bees have nested between the chimney and the body of the house, and they keep finding a way into the house... somewhere. Before I rearranged the living room, the main lamp was attracting and killing somewhere around forty bees A DAY. That's a lot of freakin' vacuuming. Now they just die all over my photography setup, and I'm pretty sure I'm wiping pollen, not dust, off of all those surfaces. Achoo.<br />
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If you're at all aware of the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Colony_collapse_disorder">bee colony collapse</a> syndrome, and how the planet's bees are dying or disappearing, then you understand why I don't want to have an exterminator come kill them. Besides, my tomato plants need pollination. What would be really good is learning enough beekeeping skills to know how to move them from our chimney to a beehive. See? Lack of focus.<br />
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Meanwhile, it takes an hour for me to set up for photography with all the dusting, adjusting, and cleaning of what is supposed to be a pure white background so I can get my white balance just right. If I do all this for photos of two or three items, it feels like a colossal waste of time. But if I wait until I have a decent number of items to shoot, then weeks will have passed, my shop looks dormant, and I have a crapload of pictures to upload and listings to write up all at the same time.<br />
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Listing ten items at once is not the way to do Etsy. It just isn't. There's a brief uptick in views/page hits every time something new gets listed singly. Throw in three items at once, the numbers don't increase at all, and that's wasted opportunity. And if I list everything all at once, but then only publish one item a day, I'll start second-guessing my copy, or the photographs, and then I waste a lot of time on rewrites and fiddling with photo filters. NONE of which is creative or zen.<br />
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Sigh. I'm 46 years old. You'd think I would have discovered my routine by now.Dielahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05756275731069816054noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1257228038838423702.post-85632522183908497932014-07-28T06:45:00.000-05:002014-07-28T06:45:51.177-05:00Tea WiseI don't know about you, but I have a hard time finding real, honest to goodness tea-towels in my local store. That may be because the only local store is a Walmart, and at best all I can find is Martha Stewart branded fluffy crap. Or cheap Chinese crap.<br />
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When I got on my new embroidery kick, the first thing I did was get a pack of plain <a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B001GOZLK8/ref=as_li_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=B001GOZLK8&linkCode=as2&tag=tilandrasnarthex&linkId=HBVAJFFPJQF32HME">Aunt Martha's 28-Inch by 28-Inch Flour Sack Dish Towels</a> and washed them all. I know they say they are pre-washed, and they appear to be, but that doesn't mean there isn't a trace of some kind of icky factory goo on there, so I washed 'em again. And promptly put them in craft storage for a couple of weeks because I was busy <a href="http://diela-kcdesign.blogspot.com/2014/07/coin-purses.html">stitching other things</a>.<br />
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But this past weekend I dug them out and started in on them. They're nice towels. There's a hanging loop hidden in one corner, so I made sure to put my decoration on the opposite end.<br />
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The top towel is a design from <a href="http://urbanthreads.com/">UrbanThreads.com </a>which, to be honest, by the time I reduced it to the proper size for a tea towel was far too intricate for the project, but I forged ahead anyway. That one will be for my personal use, as there was a small black grease stain near one of the edges. The other two are for the shop eventually. I took three motifs from the Doodle Stitching Motif Collection book and lined them up together. Over the weekend I also sketched my own original design, and plan on doing that one either today or tomorrow. It's an homage to one of my favorite tee shirts (and favorite foods). I've been mentally calling it "BLT Buddies" but that's for convenience.</div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhbGnpJzIVDhJzxGC-6R0lVVXM785hXo96pzSMhlPFD-nficIXvQi7fA6bkvQZS0MhsTBKLKkrgucg_QfpYgxGNazn9j2oplrgXYgimjgKfDkNZFW1yVX-h7bnQ92OIr9vZ8YZ-BjVuND5z/s1600/BLT+PalsSample.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhbGnpJzIVDhJzxGC-6R0lVVXM785hXo96pzSMhlPFD-nficIXvQi7fA6bkvQZS0MhsTBKLKkrgucg_QfpYgxGNazn9j2oplrgXYgimjgKfDkNZFW1yVX-h7bnQ92OIr9vZ8YZ-BjVuND5z/s1600/BLT+PalsSample.jpg" height="400" width="388" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Sample portion</td><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><br /></td></tr>
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Creating my own design has taught me two things. One, I really, really need to clean the surface of my flatbed scanner. You do NOT want to know how many flecks of dirt and dust I needed to Photoshop out of that image. And two, don't ink a drawing for embroidery with a brush pen. You just can't get a fine enough line, and you need consistency. It's a good thing I kept the original pencil sketch. Fortunately you can clean up all the line weirdness when using <a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00J3NRAV2/ref=as_li_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=B00J3NRAV2&linkCode=as2&tag=tilandrasnarthex&linkId=B3UMEE6UGT6WARSP">a light board</a> to trace the design onto a tea towel. </div>
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I had originally planned on using iron-transfer pencils for all my designs, but found that you had to wait far too long for the iron to heat to proper temperature, and I felt guilty wasting the electricity for what ended up being a five-minute ironing session. That and the transfer pencil just didn't transfer dark enough. So I've landed on two methods for my embroidery transfer... lightboard and soluble pen, or printing on a piece of tracing paper and just stitching straight through the paper.</div>
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Stitching through paper, even light tracing paper, presents its own problems though. I found it really hard to do satin stitch through paper. I need to be able to see the fabric threads while I'm working. And even with the thinnest paper possible, it left my stitching very loose on the fabric after tearing it away. I'm hoping that goes away after I wash it (that's how I did the intricate stitching on the top towel) but I fear it won't. I'll let you know how it goes.</div>
<br />Dielahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05756275731069816054noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1257228038838423702.post-76170627420561900402014-07-20T07:16:00.000-05:002014-07-20T07:16:31.155-05:00Coin Purses<br />
My latest obsession is hand embroidery. I have suddenly gotten on this kick of making these tiny coin purses. Two things I discovered while making these: one, transferring a pattern onto black cloth is not easy, even with a light pad that shines brighter than the sun and two, a thimble is a very necessary thing when stitching through two layers of fabric, a layer of stabilizer, and a layer of padding material. Especially when stitching at a weird angle, like the frames create when attaching them. I broke a needle at the eye at one point. :(<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Not a beauty shot.</td><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><br /></td></tr>
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These are mostly prototypes at this point. It's difficult to find a working pattern for the *exact* purse frame you've purchased... there are dozens of sizes and types. Some square, some arched, two inch, three inch, etc. And a lot of "tutorials" out there basically tell you to trace the frame and wing it on the rest. So very helpful (!)<br />
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But I do like the amount of time it takes me to make one (if I keep myself in gear and not take an antihistamine nap in the middle of the workday) because I can finish one in about a day. That includes all embroidery prep, turning seams and stitching into the frame.<br />
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These little motifs are from the new book "<a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1600595812/ref=as_li_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=1600595812&linkCode=as2&tag=tilandrasnarthex&linkId=2XAOLI7KFXEDSKFO">Doodle Stitching: The Motif Collection</a>". I like the book for the most part, especially that it includes a CD with all the motifs on it so you don't have to break the spine photocopying it for a transfer, but it's a little difficult to find a motif if you're looking for something specific. It was hard to find the Matryoshka dolls when they're in the "Fairy Tales" section. And I have no idea how to spell it properly, either.<br />
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I'm going to be moving away from purchased motifs, however, as I am never comfortable putting out product that has someone else's artwork on it, even if I'm using it for the exact purpose it was intended. This means I have to start yet another sketchbook (what a bummer) and draw my own, if I can find a pencil that hasn't been chewed to splinters by the dog.Dielahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05756275731069816054noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1257228038838423702.post-34011318713672536502014-07-17T07:58:00.000-05:002014-07-17T07:58:38.552-05:00Personal Time is OverYesterday I finished up my second embroidered pillowcase for my own personal use, so it's time to head back into items for the shop. This was fun, though, and I can totally see embroidered items coming to my shop very soon. I didn't think embroidery would be as relaxing as knitting or crochet, but the threading of the needle and weaving in ends didn't bother me nearly as much as I thought they would.<br />
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Excuse the photo, I was trying to get this taken and uploaded in ten minutes before our internet went kerplonk for the day. Never, never commit yourself to a two-year contract with a service provider that has a monthly bandwith cap. Bastards.<br />
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And because he's cute, a picture of a much-healthier Mr. Pickles one month after we rescued him from behind a dumpster at hubby's work. <br />
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I'm going to be crocheting a trim on the floral pillowcase I did earlier this month. There are several new workflow processes coming into play... adding my own hemstitching, crocheting onto fabric, etc. It helps to do it for something personal first to see if I want to add it to items for the shop. Some things you'll only do for yourself, and are too frustrating or time-consuming to make it feasible for sale items. The crochet trim might be one of those items. We'll see.Dielahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05756275731069816054noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1257228038838423702.post-63181314016968682202014-07-10T05:09:00.001-05:002014-07-10T05:12:11.326-05:00Third World HouseholdThese past two weeks were the weeks to feel like I was living in pioneer times, or a third-world country. We had five days in a row where it rained nearly continuously, and when it rains our satellite internet goes out completely. Then our power went out for four hours one morning and I scrambled around trying to save the frozen meat and produce, not knowing how long the outage would last. Now, for the last three days, our water pressure slowed down to a trickle, and then completely went out yesterday afternoon. We are reassured by the utility company that there is a "leak in the area" and that a technician will be coming out to check it out sometime today. Not to fix it... check it out. Meanwhile I'm washing my hands with water from a jug and the dishes are piling up... again.<br />
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So it's natural I start thinking about my zombie apocalypse skill set and how I could support myself when society breaks down. Honestly, not much will change... except I can't watch through the <a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00CRVL5ZE/ref=as_li_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=B00CRVL5ZE&linkCode=as2&tag=tilandrasnarthex&linkId=NUO3HYBJLAZLUFPT">X-files </a>for the billionth time while I spin yarn or stitch. We'll have to re-live the episodes verbally, like campfire stories I guess. "This one time, Mulder was tracking a guy who could stretch and fit himself through impossible openings like a bat. Only instead of getting caught in your hair, he'd eat your liver..."<br />
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So anyway, what I've been doing since my last post... I've accomplished quite a bit, actually. I *finally* finished a doily I've been working on for a week, and thought I would be done with before the holiday weekend... but wasn't. Yeah, I procrastinated. What finally gave me the impetus to finish was the thought that I could work on a few personal projects when I was done.<br />
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Ever since I was diagnosed with several allergies, I've been using a special pillow protector and changing the outer pillowcase religiously every week. I decided that was a good enough excuse to make myself some really pretty embroidered and crochet-embellished pillowcases, and if I find a new item to sell in the Etsy shop, all the better. This pillowcase was from a cheap stamped kit I found on Amazon, but now that I've found out how drop-dead easy it is to transfer drawings for embroidery (which I will share with you in another post), I'm going to start doing some fancy patterns I've purchased in the past, and then move into embroidering my own art. Hey, I could have 52 pillowcases and still not use them all in a year, so I think this is a medium I could explore for quite a while. If I were to break it down, it took me three work-days to finish embroidering that pillowcase. If I choose to crochet the edging, possibly five days total. You can add at least a day to that, because my crochet always takes longer than I think it will.<br />
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Yesterday, before I started a new embroidery project, I felt it was really important to have a pincushion. So I started a new embroidery project to make one. I know right? I have the embroiderer's equivalent of "cast-on itis". But it only took me a day to take this cutie out of the book
<a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1454703636/ref=as_li_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=1454703636&linkCode=as2&tag=tilandrasnarthex&linkId=2SIIFDNKCURENRH3" id="static_txt_preview" target="_blank">Doodle Stitching: Embroidery & Beyond: Crewel, Cross Stitch, Sashiko & More</a> and make it real.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEieL8t7gdjXJc0t45_D-Chh3S0F1NuBP3rDQkX4s2Y1DCNf-RCr0jFQ4Lnm9XcZhswdAHhpMcUaf9MtmoN1a0H9RC_JSLFYeiKuPOAgyuXtHSFUqr5AMANuJO10nLxa1Vqqxs8xrdJGpJCX/s1600/20140710_4sm.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEieL8t7gdjXJc0t45_D-Chh3S0F1NuBP3rDQkX4s2Y1DCNf-RCr0jFQ4Lnm9XcZhswdAHhpMcUaf9MtmoN1a0H9RC_JSLFYeiKuPOAgyuXtHSFUqr5AMANuJO10nLxa1Vqqxs8xrdJGpJCX/s1600/20140710_4sm.JPG" height="240" width="320" /></a></div>
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My selection of felt was limited, so my green isn't grass green, but after discovering a long-lost stash of DMC floss in the garage amongst the items we moved into storage after Hurricane Katrina a few months ago, I was able to match my floss colors. I may design my own pincushion later and add a nice big neodymium magnet to the bottom. And now I have someplace to park my embroidery needle! Here's hoping the new doggie doesn't decide this is a great chew toy... this little guy chews on aluminum cans when I'm not watching, so I won't put anything past him. <br />
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I have two doilies that need to be listed in the shop, but since setting up for decent photography takes a bit of time, I may be waiting until I have a few more items to snap before I put them in. Plus I got a new light set and I want to clear out my photography corner a bit and run a vacuum over the dead bees that collect there (long story) and it's exhausting just typing that out, much less doing it. I'll keep you posted.<br />
Dielahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05756275731069816054noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1257228038838423702.post-50113432858570347472014-06-26T12:43:00.000-05:002014-08-22T08:19:52.221-05:00Newest Addition<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiP0iJcDGF9ZLNPBLM-RQeDBLPCW4rFBLn82R5P-ZIspBDggElMMgRVrN6lZbBXosJ1-FL0MfIwGjXUnRelo0NUVKXWIGxRuNEPlqIovQgGyThAO4X3UvSPOlmIEVP05uaKMmrYOSqvLsFy/s1600/20140626_4.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"></a>So I put a hint on my Facebook feed last week about what I was currently working on. It's a doily, but very special to me, as it incorporates Irish crochet motifs (something I've been dying to do successfully) and looks quite pretty.<br />
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The flat center will easily accommodate a 6" pillar candle and glass tray. The whole thing is roughly 10" across from leaf tip to leaf tip.<br />
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I plan on doing another one in this same color scheme, but with different materials (still cotton, but from a different source which has softer thread) and making pointed petals instead of rounded, ruffled petals, looking more like a poinsettia. I think it would be ideal for a Winter solstice celebration, whichever kind you choose to observe.Dielahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05756275731069816054noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1257228038838423702.post-72556523238517528722014-06-25T08:47:00.000-05:002014-07-24T08:05:10.884-05:00Long Time No SeeHey there! I know it's been a while. While I don't like to make excuses, last October I had my first allergic reaction to food, closely followed by an attack of breathing allergies when we turned on the heating system for the winter. I didn't know what it was at first, and I literally thought I was dying of something mysterious. My blog took a very distant back-seat as I struggled with my health.<br />
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Now that summer is upon us though, I am feeling a million times better. Next winter season, I'll know what's going on and do the prep-work... getting the air ducts cleaned, getting on my allergy meds in advance, etc. It's amazing how much such a little thing can color your entire life.<br />
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In other news, I am re-opening my Etsy shop. Instead of dyed fiber for spinners, however, I am going to be offering home-decor textiles. Doilies, embroidered towels and other items, crocheted coasters... you get the idea. Here's some examples of what I've been working on. Some of these are in the shop right now.<br />
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I'm still figuring out photograpy options and presentation. I'm having a real problem with backgrounds. I just don't have the space in my kitchen or dining area to photograph in there so I have a "real" background, and a cloth backdrop just seems so blah.<br />
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I was relieved to see that other crafters on Etsy have similar prices to what I'd intended... people who under price their crafted items really ruin it for the rest of us. Materials do cost money, and when it takes three pretty solid full days of crafting to creating one doily, I don't think the prices are unreasonable. There will always be buyers who are in the Walmart mindset who want bargains and thrift-store prices, but I hope to attract people who value real craftsmanship and are willing to compensate for it. Maybe I'm naive. I hope not.<br />
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I'll try to make it back on here more often in the year to come. If you're interested in my Etsy shop, there should be a link over there on the right. :D<br />
<br />Dielahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05756275731069816054noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1257228038838423702.post-57385567294842865022013-09-12T05:24:00.000-05:002013-09-12T05:24:24.665-05:00Movies: Now You See MeMy blog is never going to be known for its movie reviews. Between the family members on the autism spectrum who hate crowds, and our rural location, going to a movie in a theater is an *event*. And very rare. But I had to share my thoughts on the movie I watched on DVD last night, "Now You See Me".<br />
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The friends I've made since high school don't know this, but I used to be a magician's assistant in junior and senior high. Every year our high school put on a Madrigal dinner. To be honest, I didn't pay attention enough to know if it was a fundraising effort for the drama department, the school in general, or just a tradition for a fun evening of theater. What I do know is that our magic act would perform at it every year, and did side gigs for other schools and children's events. I never got paid, I did it for the fun. And it *was* a lot of fun.<br />
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So when I saw a trailer recently for "Now You See Me" I was enthralled, and knew I had to see this film. Finally magic was once again the focus of the media... and not in a gross, Chris Angel, in-your-face kind of way. It was a subject of wonder, excitement, and enchantment once again. Yeah, they made it sexier with bank heists and crime, but it looked like it was celebrating magic in a way I could approve of.<br />
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I was not disappointed. It did celebrate the wonder and theater of good magic acts, but it had more. There were threads of misdirection in the plot, a tale of revenge (or two), a love story, death and resurrection, Robin Hood hijinks, a secret society, and humor. Sure, some of the special effects were CGI instead of practical, and some of the twists and turns of the plot were a little heavy-handed, but I'd like to think even Shakespeare would have approved of the story. <br />
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The acting was very good. Mark Ruffalo (does that man *ever* shave?) as the rumpled, reluctant FBI guy, Michael Caine as the elegant financier, and Morgan Freeman as the experienced magic-debunker all gave their usual stellar performances. My only disappointment was the french Interpol agent, as her accent made her difficult to understand in spots. It was a French director, I suppose he didn't realize.<br />
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I think if they had managed some of the stage effects with practical (physical) effects, rather than computer imagery, I would have considered this the perfect movie. As it is, I only consider it to be a shade below five stars.<br />
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Dielahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05756275731069816054noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1257228038838423702.post-31380241570609378632013-09-08T06:19:00.001-05:002013-09-08T06:23:19.560-05:00Food: Paleo and Whole30I didn't really announce it (although maybe I should have) but for the month of September I'm trying the <a href="http://whole9life.com/2013/08/the-whole30-program/">Whole30</a> "reset". I don't want to call it a cleanse, or a diet, because both of those words have negative connotations. I'm not trying to lose weight, and I'm not really coming off a binge of excesses, although sugar might count. I *have* been having inflammation problems... the old frozen shoulder, my throat (I have an elongated styloid process on the left that I really don't want to have surgery for), joints that feel sprained. I read the book, "<a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B008C20TDG/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=B008C20TDG&linkCode=as2&tag=tilandrasnarthex">It Starts With Food</a>". This is not a diet.<br />
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This is a fact-finding mission.<br />
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By cutting out "trigger foods"... wheat, dairy, sugar, un-healthy fats, and legumes... for one month, and then re-integrating them slowly back into my menu, I can figure out what's making me feel un-well. Then decide if I really want to keep those foods in my rotation, or cut them out. It's about finding a balance.<br />
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Leading up to the first of the month, I started easing into it by cutting back on sugar. On the first of the month, I dropped it all (and believe me, that was not an easy thing to do having just made almost FOUR DOZEN burritos for the freezer). I actually hit the symptoms of days 6-7 of the <a href="http://whole9life.com/2013/08/revised-timeline/">"what to expect" timeline</a> on the 3rd of September, probably due to my "easing" into it. Now on the 8th, I'm physically somewhere around days 10-11. I'm bored with this. My meat is always dry, I'm already running out of greens and it's a week before I can hit the grocery store again. The highlight has been "crab boil night" (minus the little red potatoes and corn on the cob... sigh) with flash-frozen king crab legs, shrimp, and a foil packet of tilapia fillet in homemade citrus dressing. (I was amazed the seal held) Plain salad and sliced cucumber on the side.<br />
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But not every night can end with a pile of exo-skeleton on your plate. And even *I* am getting bored with having to spend a half an hour in the kitchen every time I want to eat something.<br />
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So I bought a few of these cute little <a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0078K3ZPM/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=B0078K3ZPM&linkCode=as2&tag=tilandrasnarthex">Rubbermaid "Lunch Blox" salad kits</a>. Last night I set my shoulders and lined myself up with three kits, using the separated trays and dressing container to line up ingredients from the <a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0615629539/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=0615629539&linkCode=as2&tag=tilandrasnarthex">Paleo Power Lunches</a> book with a few modifications to fit what I had on hand. I'd already made the Citrus Dressing with lime, and the Honey Mustard (OMG... yum) dressing earlier in the week, so it was basically a half hour of chopping and portioning. So on those days when I hit eleven am and I'm starting to feel like gnawing off my own arm, I can just grab one of these and settle in for lunch.<br />
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And I'm sorry, but no amount of coaxing is going to get me to post a "beauty shot" of the inside of my fridge. Let's just say they're lined up like good little soldiers, ready to be deployed. The Lunch Blox are really quite neat, though, with nesting hollows on the lid for convenient, spill-proof stacking in your lunch bag. They come with a fitted cooling block, too, and although I don't need them now, I might later. I wish they'd had these twenty years ago.<br />
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I have already noticed an improvement in my shoulder and throat, so I definitely think there is something to this. I'll try to keep you updated on my progress. Dielahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05756275731069816054noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1257228038838423702.post-25931355509550195302013-08-29T08:21:00.000-05:002013-08-29T08:21:41.896-05:00Movies: Star Trek: Into DarknessI got spoiled on this movie right after theatrical release… one of those “top
ten” lists where fans complain caught me by surprise. So I knew the
identity of Benedict Cumberbatch going in. Amazon had the digital
version for sale a month before the DVD is available, so I took the
plunge.<br />
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<strong>SPOILERS AHEAD</strong><br />
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Overall, I thought I would hate the whole thing, knowing what I
already knew. I actually liked it, right up until the ending with its
blatant re-write of a classic “old trek” moment. That whole sequence
was, frankly, unnecessary. In old trek, Spock’s death was a segue into
the next movie… it was <em>required</em> for the plot. Here, they just
threw it in for gratuitous fan-pandering. It wasn’t needed. Kirk was
alive again before the credits even rolled. Why the hell was it in
there? And throwing in the shuttle from “that Mudd incident last month”
to take down to Kronos… what was that? More old fan pandering.<br />
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If you’re going to reboot, reboot FFS.<br />
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I thought knowing Cumberbatch was Khan would ruin it for me, but (as
Sherlock shows us) he plays the mad genius very well. I enjoyed his
performance.<br />
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What I did NOT enjoy was JJ Abrams’ abundant use of lens flares. I
see now why people complain about this. It was obnoxious. I don’t think
there was a SINGLE SCENE where there wasn’t a lens flare. There were
flares in space. There were flares off the equipment on the bridge. At
one point there was a FLARE OFF McCOY’S HAIR. WTF? Someone needs to hold
an intervention. Seriously. And when they clear out all the software,
make sure they take away the lens flare filter in photoshop too. Could
cause a relapse.<br />
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I’m buying the DVD of course. There’s just so little good Sci-Fi out
there, and this is better than most. I just wish it was better than
itself.Dielahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05756275731069816054noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1257228038838423702.post-21903137049258631822013-08-28T07:45:00.003-05:002013-08-28T07:45:48.634-05:00Food and Cooking: Make-ahead Frenzy for Back-to-SchoolWay back in 1991 (when dinosaurs roamed the earth) I was in MOS training for the Army in Aurora, Colorado. It was a mixed-branch class, with Army and Navy represented. Every morning before instruction started, a young woman would show up with grocery bags full of breakfast burritos of various ingredient combinations. Chorizo, italian sausage, ham, beef and cheese. We cleverly named her the "burrito lady". She charged a dollar apiece, and she never went home with anything but our cash (we were not the only class... there were eight others in various stages of training).<br />
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Apparently she was operating without a food service license, because in my sixth or seventh month, she disappeared, banned from selling on-base. I never forgot how her burritos were damn near perfect every single time, and completely delicious. No-one ever got sick, or found something disgusting in them... I think it's just another example of over-rigid thinking.<br />
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After spending a couple of days this past weekend making and wrapping my own attempts for the freezer, I think I should have happily paid two dollars, or even three. It's darn hard work.<br />
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I'm using this book: <a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1603427260/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=1603427260&linkCode=as2&tag=tilandrasnarthex">Fix, Freeze, Feast</a> I made twenty breakfast burritos with ham, and twenty beef and bean burritos. The breakfast burritos, filled with a mixture of scrambled egg and potato, then moistened with sour cream, were hard to fill and roll properly. Maybe I needed to cut the potatoes even smaller, or I was over-filling them. I was already dubious about the sour cream, and they tended to unfold on the ends. I should have warmed the tortillas slightly. I was going nuts trying not to lick my fingers (don't worry, I washed my hands instead). And worst of all, they would not all fit into my stacking container OR a one-gallon freezer bag. I had to divide it between two.<br />
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If I hadn't already written on a one-gallon with a Sharpie, I would have gone for the two-gallon bag instead. I managed to remember that for the beef and bean burritos, and the entire batch fit into one two-gallon bag.<br />
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I sampled one of each for lunch on the Monday after. I baked from rock-solid frozen as per the instructions, and although the beef and bean burrito was completely done, the breakfast burrito was still cold in the middle. I would increase the baking time by ten minutes if you decide to try these.<br />
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This was not the only thing I accomplished that weekend. We got home from vacation at a quarter to four on Friday morning. After sleeping in (yay!) I went to work and got the following done over our three-day weekend before school started:<br />
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<ol>
<li>Grocery shopping (the house was bare... I mean, really bare. I thought I was moving up until a week before we left, plus I always clean the fridge before a vacation)</li>
<li>Ten quarts of red sauce (think Marinara for the freezer)</li>
<li>ten pounds pre-cooked ground beef, some bagged in quart bags as loose meat</li>
<li>two full-size lasagnes (again, from the book above using the red sauce. I would check very, very carefully what size noodles you use though. They use three noodles for every layer, and they did NOT cover the width of the size of pan they listed. I filled in around the edges with rigatoni, as I only had enough noodles as required by the recipe, and did NOT want to have to go back to the store)</li>
<li>Saturday was ground beef day. I pre-cooked a bit more loose meat, made a gigantic batch of meatballs and pre-cooked them, and divvied up the rest of the raw ground beef into one-pound portions in quart freezer bags, and pre-formed burger patties.</li>
<li>Sunday was burrito-palooza. I did breakfast ones in the morning, took a long lunch break, and did the beef and bean in the afternoon. I also managed to fit in one batch of orange-glazed chicken breasts (six pounds worth) for the freezer. There is a raspberry-glazed recipe in the book, and I adapted it since I did NOT want to use my last jar of raspberry jam and have a dozen of orange marmalade.</li>
<li>And because I'm a masochist, I snuck in a batch of oven-roasted (paleo inspired) chicken breasts on Monday night. I don't like when chicken is in my fridge for longer than that, so it had to be done. For that, I used <a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/061557226X/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=061557226X&linkCode=as2&tag=tilandrasnarthex">Well Fed: Paleo Recipes for People Who Love to Eat</a>. They do it with thighs, but have alternate instructions for b/s breasts, and it worked fine.</li>
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So Monday night we had spaghetti and meatballs, all from the freezer. Last night we had chopped roasted chicken breasts over a bed of spring greens. Tonight? Not sure. Perhaps one of the lasagnes if I'm feeling indulgent. Dielahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05756275731069816054noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1257228038838423702.post-57902409440689102412013-07-09T08:03:00.002-05:002013-07-09T08:03:45.717-05:00Food and Yarn: Stop Encouraging ThemI have to say something. I've been watching my fellow crafters over the years... women who want to dye their own yarn or fiber, but are afraid of "real" dyes and bringing harsh chemicals into their homes... dyeing with Kool-Aid. Ladies and gentlemen, you are not thinking this through.<br />
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Dyeing with Kool-Aid involves taking the powdered drink mix, applying it to the fiber after dissolving it in liquid, and fixing it with vinegar and heat.<br />
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Dyeing with an acid dye, such as Jacquard, involves taking the powder, applying it to the fiber after dissolving it in liquid, and fixing it with vinegar and heat.<br />
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There is no difference. NONE. The substances are exactly the same. In fact, by purchasing Kool-Aid instead of acid dyes, you are encouraging Kool-Aid to keep creating their noxious drink powders that contain substances that CAN PERMANENTLY DYE FIBER and feeding it to our children.<br />
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Instead of being afraid of Jacquard acid fixed dyes, you should be afraid that a company is feeding it to our kids. Please stop encouraging them. Kool-Aid is NO SAFER than other protein-fiber colorant agents. It just has additional ingredients for flavor.<br />
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Now, dyes for cotton and plant-based fibers are a whole other story, but I'll save that for another post.Dielahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05756275731069816054noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1257228038838423702.post-52535674800629249192013-04-29T06:00:00.000-05:002013-04-30T08:08:30.275-05:00Cooking: Meatless Monday, Lentil SaladTrying hard to work in a "meatless Monday" every week. It's cheaper, healthier, and reduces my neurotic worry over our cholesterol levels. It's also higher in fiber when you include legumes, like this lentil salad.<br>
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I heavily modified a version I found in the "<a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1615190619/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=1615190619&linkCode=as2&tag=tilandrasnarthex">Forks Over Knives</a>" cookbook. While their version uses a lot of cilantro and mint, I wanted to create something a little more like a cross between three-bean salad and hummus. Sort of.<br>
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My Roja garlic hadn't performed up to my expectations. Only half of them came up, and I wanted the garden bed space for lettuces, so I picked most of them early. I replaced the green onion and garlic cloves in the original recipe with two too-young garlic shoots. I added a bit of cilantro, but omitted <br>
<a href="http://diela-kcdesign.blogspot.com/2013/04/cooking-meatless-monday-lentil-salad.html#more">Read more »</a>Dielahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05756275731069816054noreply@blogger.com0