So it goes

So last we spoke I was dealing with a problem in my thumb and a dog diagnosed with cancer.  You'd think 5 months later things would be very different, but you'd be wrong.  My thumb issue went away for a while and is starting to act back up.  Nevertheless I've been powering through and crafting anyway.  Freya's still fighting the cancer and while she's not exactly healthy, she's doing okay and is still her usual perky self.

She tires out a bit on long walks so we picked up a wagon for her and she seems to enjoy it when she starts to slow down.  I feel a tad foolish wheeling my dog around in a wagon, but it is worth it to be able to have her with me.

In addition to my chainmaille and other crafting, I've taken up metal stamping since last I wrote.  If you don't know what it is I suggest taking a peek here.  I'm totally digging it and working on all sorts of new projects.

Keep an eye on the etsy site or my new site www.thundercrafts.com for new stamped listings.  I'll be offering tons of custom options!

2014 is not going well.

I'm here today to tell you why I may not be here as often as I'd like over the next year or so and why I haven't been here much this month.  To start with I developed a nasty tendon problem with my thumb at the beginning of the month so I've had a hard time crafting or cooking which is most of what I blog about.  I got a cortisone shot on Friday which usually cures 80% of the people with this problem so I hope to get back to the cooking and crafting within the next week or so.

The other thing that happened this month is my beloved dog Freya was diagnosed with cancer in her bladder.  My vet says that on average with the only treatment option she has this means she has 6-12 months.  Of course the hope is that she'll be one of the above average dogs and make it another 2 years, but there is no way to know.  Because of this I'll be spending a lot of spare time and money doing medical stuff with her and making the most of what time we have left together.  Which also means my posting will come when I can, but not as often as I'd like to.  Hopefully you will all bear with me.  And if anyone has any recommendations for things that have helped them cope with the loss of a beloved pet or a terminal illness please share.  I could use all the help I can get.

Cooking Challenge Week 5: Vanilla Buttermilk Pound Cake

This week's theme is vanilla.  I use vanilla in a lot of my baking but rarely do I bake anything that's primary flavor is vanilla.  I've always been more of a chocolate girl.  Or Coconut.  Or both.  But a few of the things I love do have a stronger vanilla flavor.  I briefly debated shortbread, but that's nothing new so I quickly dismissed it and went searching through my binder of magazine recipes.  What I found was a page from an old cooking light for Vanilla Buttermilk Pound Cake and promptly decided that was what I would make.

I love the simplicity of pound cake, but I've only made it once and didn't have good luck with that recipe.  This one was better although I made a few minor adjustments.

1.  I made it in two big loaf pans instead of a few small.
2.  I saw it only called for 1 teaspoon of vanilla and thought that couldn't possibly be enough so I added closer to 2.5 tsp.
3.  I used the emergency substitution of milk and lemon juice in place of the buttermilk.  If I make it again I'd like to use real buttermilk but the cold and snow discouraged me from running out to buy it.

It is an easy recipe and a sweet, simple deliciousness.  Try it!

Cooking Challenge Weeks 3 and 4

So I missed week 2- Polish food.  I went through the trouble of getting my mother's pierogi recipe but then got too lazy to make them.  I may still do them sometime soonish because I do love pierogi and its not something I've ever made.

I also didn't manage week 3 or 4 in time- and combined them when I did.  I guess I'm not so great at this thing :)  For the One Pot (week 3) and Ingredient You Hated As A Kid (week 4) I decided to make French Onion Soup.  I despised onions as a kid and now French Onion is my favorite soup- with or without the hefty coating of cheese.  Unfortunately for me, I still can't seem to master it.

I found a recipe that involved caramelizing the onions in a slow cooker all day then adding the broth and cooking another 30 minutes.

It looks okay.  French Onion-y.  But something was off with the flavor and I can't figure out what.  I got a different recipe recommended to me, so I'll probably be borrowing my mom's dutch oven and trying again soon.

Stay tuned for week 5- Vanilla and some pictures of my newest creation for my etsy shop!  I'm super excited about it!

Christmas: The third and final installment

So here they are finally.  My Christmas knitting projects.

I made 4 cowls.  Each in a different color.  One was already wrapped and given before I could take a picture, but here are the other 3.

I found the pattern through ravelry (did you guys know about this site?  It's awesome!)  You have to create an account but its way worth it.  I found this pattern on it and got knitting.  It was my first time ever knitting from a pattern and required some help from a coworker in figuring it out.  I made mistakes and none of them are perfect, but overall I'm pretty happy with the turnout.  I did one big button on three of them and the three smaller on just the one.  Just because.  :)

Most of them came paired with hot chocolate truffles.  No pictures of them because mine didn't come out looking pretty, but if you'd like the recipe you can find it here.  They taste good- mine just don't look nice.

I paired the one I had to mail with homemade cheese crackers instead.  They came out looking nice and tasting delicious.  Check out full instructions here.  My additions/changes are that I did all butter instead of a T. of shortening and I salted before they went in the oven.  My other note is that they taste better fresh out of the oven when rolled thicker and taste better the next day when they are thinner rolled.

Anyone have any recipes/patterns/ideas to share that they used for Christmas?  Or something that you got that you absolutely loved?

52 Weeks of Cooking Challenge

If you've stuck through my on again off again blogging attempts (or read the archives) you may remember the 52 Weeks of Cooking Challenge I did a few years ago.  Well it's still going on and I've decided to give it another go this year.  I figure it works well with this month's eating in challenge and since I'm only doing the cooking challenge this time and not also the baking challenge I may make it just a little bit farther into the year.  I also have no major plans for the year (no move or huge vacation) so hopefully I can manage.

Week One's challenge is eggs so I decided to try a new method of poaching eggs (I love me a good poached egg)

This one was not so good a poached egg.  (okay these two were not good poached eggs)

I used the method from my new cookbook purchased with Christmas Amazon funds:

I love the cookbook.  It's my new best friend.  I think, however, I'm not listening to it like I should be in a good relationship.

The recipe calls for 2 T. vingear and 1 t. salt in the water in a saucepan.  I got that right.  See?

Well okay you can't see as vinegar is clear and the salt dissolved.  But trust me.  It's there.

Where I think I failed is bringing it to a rolling boil.  I thought it was a rolling boil.  It had been cooking long enough and it looked rolling boil-y to me.  I tipped my eggs in from a teacup (okay coffee cup we don't do tea in this house), covered the pan with a lid and removed it from the heat to cook for 3.5 minutes.

After checking the eggs they were decidedly not done and I continued to cook them for another minute and a half.  Then I gave up and ate them anyway.  They were okay.  But they were also probably the worst eggs I've ever poached.  The whites were not set right and the yolks were more done than I prefer and the only conclusion I can come to is the water wasn't hot enough when I put the eggs in.  

I also think now that I'm looking back at it- I should have left it on the same burner just turned it off.  Could that have made enough of a difference?  Mayhaps its poached eggs again for dinner.  I'll report back if I can get them right with this method.  Otherwise its back to my old simmer in a saucepan method.  Those cooked right, but never looked pretty.

Christmas Part 2 and Resolutions

Ah Resolutions. I seem to make them every year and they seem to be round about the same every year as well. With the all the moving I did and the holidays both my budget and my health are way out of whack and I need to do something about it. So this year I'm committing to The Chic Life's Eat In Month challenge for January!  She leaves a lot of the rules up to you so you can tailor it to what you want your challenge to be.  Click the banner below to read more about it on her site.

For me anything from the grocery store is okay and I'm going to allow myself 1 cheat meal a week.  Even with one meal out a week I'm going to have a tough time.  I'm also going to allow coffees out but only until my Starbucks and Dunkin Gift Cards are spent. Wish me luck and join me in the challenge!

I also hope to be posting some of my home cooked meals here.  You won't be seeing the meal-in-a-bag PF Changs of course (which are totally delicious and AWESOME for those days when you don't feel like cooking) but I hope to experiment with some more recipes and show them off here.  Who knows, maybe I'll even join the 52 weeks of cooking again.

 

Now back to Christmas.  I still can't share my knitting or the mailed package so expect a part 3 to Christmas to show up in the middle of January, but I wanted to show off the gift my sister made me:

And close up:

She said she got the idea from pinterest but I don't know exactly where to cite it. :)  She definitely knows me well- 2 of my favorite things reading and travelling.  I absolutely love them!  Anyone else have cool things that they are dying to share?

Christmas Part 1

I have been running around like a crazy person for the last month or so frantically trying to get everything done in time for Christmas.  Like usual, I totally failed.  It never seems to matter how early I start, life gets in the way and I perpetually overbook myself for Christmas.  

You may remember the quilt I was working on.  I thought starting as early as I did I'd totally have it done for Christmas Eve when I was supposed to give it.  I didn't.  I came SO close.  So very close.  But I wound up giving the mostly finished quilt and then taking it back to give back to the recipient once I fully finished it.  I had 2/4 edges left finish come Christmas Eve, but ran out of time and fabric (AGAIN!  I'm really bad about figuring out how much I need ahead of time!).  I finally finished it on Friday and should be seeing the recipient again on New Years Day to give it to him.  I forgot to take a picture of the quilt in its full glory, but here it is nice and pretty all tied up with ribbon and ready to give.

I'm also still working on some knitting projects that I cannot yet share on here.  Thankfully though I still haven't seen those recipients for Christmas so I'm not really late.  It doesn't count if I haven't had the opportunity to give the gifts yet :)  

Oh and then there's the mailed gift that really should have been done a week before Christmas so I could post it but I haven't even started yet.  Thankfully shes a forgiving friend and won't mind a belated gift.  

One of the gifts I put together this year for some people was mulling spices.  I do a lot of cookies usually so I found this on pinterest and thought it might make a nice change of pace.  I bought some bottles of 3 buck chuck at Trader Joes to package it with for a frugal gift.  My recommendation if you try it is to get spices from bulk bins for the best price.  In my case this meant that Whole Foods was the cheapest source of spices (who would have ever guessed!?).

Stay tuned for Christmas Parts 2 and 3 where I'll share some of the other things I made and some of the gifts I received from people (my sister made a fabulous crafty thing for my craft room that I have to share!).  

Draft Snakes

I had to take a quilting break.  I'm a little afraid I won't get it done in time but this is our first winter we're living on the top floor of an old farmhouse.  And you know what farmhouses are (aside from adorable)?  They are freaking DRAFTY!  Not only is each window and door drafty, but we have like a bajillion of them.  When I was sitting in front of the couch wondering if the window was cracked because there was so much cold coming out of the window behind me I realized we were going to need to do something if we didn't want to spend a year's salary heating the place for the 4-5 months that make up a Chicago winter.  My solution- draft snakes!  Or draft stoppers, whatever you want to call them.

So this is what I've spent my quilting break doing.

I have made a total of 34 draft stoppers and filled them with about 130 lbs of rice.  Some are scrap fabric, but I eventually just used Black Friday to buy cheap flannel for the rest of them (and get adorable patterns too)  

So to make them I was cutting fabric about 36x7( I prefer 8 but I was getting closer to 7 to get the most full stirps out of a yard)

Then you just fold it in half lengthwise so that the pretty sides face each other and stitch the short end and most of the long end together then turn it right side out.  I used a zigzag stitch to hopefully hold it better.  

After its turned right side out fill it with something (sand, rice, beans- anything like that) and sew the other end closed.  Fold the rough edges inside so you have a nice clean end.  

I sealed the window draft stoppers because I figure there isn't much chance of them getting wet or dirty and therefore needing cleaning or risking the filling getting moldy.  I wasn't sure how the door stoppers would do so I went searching for alternate solutions and used velcro for the end on those.  That way they can be emptied, thrown in the washer and refilled.  

This is what the velcro end looks like.  I can definitely tell the house is far less drafty than it was before them.  I still have 3 more to make, but I need to pick up another 25 lb bag of rice at Costco to do it. :)  

I'm considering working adding these to my etsy shop and selling them unfilled (because shipping them filled is way expensive and makes more sense for buyers to fill it themselves.  

Christmas Crafting

After not being able to finish my Halloween costume in time, I swiftly switched to my Christmas present crafting.  So far it's mostly been knitting that I can't share here since there's a chance those I'm knitting for may read this post.  What I can share is the quilt I'm working on.  A few years ago I made my step brother and step sister each a quilt for Christmas.  The same year I wasn't able to make a quilt for their half-brother.  I was also hesitant to make one for him at the age he was.  He was in between appreciating a kid quilt and an adult one so I didn't want to make one he wouldn't like.  I decided this year was he was old enough and I had enough time to make him a quilt.

I browsed around and found a pattern(ish) I liked and went for it.  I found a post on the "disappearing nine patch" quilt (on Pinterest of course), picked some colors, and finally started on it a few days ago.  I'm of course no where near done, but I thought I'd share my progress so far.

The setup.  Not pictured- the coffee and little bin I use for trash scraps to the right.  Also X-files on in case you were wondering :)

I've sewn together three rows of three here before sewing those three rows together.

Then I cut them in fours.  I suppose I should have arranged them like they were in the first picture so you could see the cuts, but I wanted the feel of the final quilt more.

So far I've made I think about 6 or 7 of these bigger blocks and cut them all up into the smaller squares.  I should need about 15 of them to make a quilt somewhere around full size if my math is okay.  I think I'm liking the look, but I'm still nowhere near as precise as I'd like to be so I hope it still comes out okay.  

Anyone else started on their Christmas projects?  Any ideas you'd like to share?

Freya

Freya is my adorable 11 year old rescue mutt.  She means the world to me, I love her with all my heart.  She's also never been the healthiest dog.  I've regularly had to take her in for skin infections and ear infections due to her host of allergies and about 2 years ago she developed Cushings disease.  Thankfully all of that is fairly manageable with a carefully monitoring her diet and regular meds.  Very recently she's been having more problems with her kidneys and liver.  Still not exactly sure what is going on- I'm waiting on a call from the vet tomorrow when she gets the results in.  But basically I'm telling you all this because shes the reason I haven't had a chance to write lately.  We've been at the vet every day for the past week for her to get fluids and a handful of times for the weeks before that.  So instead of crafting, I've been caring for and doting on the dog.  More crafting to come soon- but for now look at how cute my dog is :)

It's kind of amazing how much her coloring has changed over the years.  The first picture is within the first month or so of when we got her (she was 4), the second picture is from a year or two later, and then the last are all within the past 3 years.  She's completely lovable and almost never makes a noise (except for her adorable chasing things dreams).  Pets make life worthwhile and my Freya definitely does that for me.  Anyone else have pet pics or stories to share?  We're a dog family but I love all furry and scaly creatures.  And sometimes feathers I suppose...

I'm Finally Settled In

Between two different moves (and the associated packing and unpacking) its been a long time since I've felt settled and at home.  Now that we're done unpacking and have hung the pictures I feel like we have a home again.  Its really the pictures that cinch the whole thing.  A new place doesn't feel like home until we put our pictures on the wall.  Of course this space still has a lot of open wall but it feels so much more homey and I can sit on my couch with my mug of cocoa and enjoy the place.

In addition to all the moving, we had a whirlwind trip to Vancouver for a weekend just a week ago and I'm here today to share some pictures with you.

Steam Clock in gastown

Inuksuk

We totally saw otters not in a zoo!!!

I really love animals dressed as mounties!

This is a really awful picture of me, but you have to see the raccoon mittens I got at the gift store!

Capilano Suspension Bridge- way way awesome and what follows is only a small sampling of the breathtaking views

The New Craft Room

The move was completed almost a week ago (exactly a week as of tomorrow) and I've finally got enough of my life back in order to sit down and post.  There was a lot of unpacking, a party to go to, and a wall to paint in between then and now.  What I have to show for it is a nearly done craft room and pictures to share with you!  

This is the area right behind the door.  You can see an over the door shoe organizer I use for various crafty things as well as my bookshelf with knitting supplies, jewelry supplies, scrapbooks, misc. craft supplies, and some stuffed animals.  You can also see the pile of random I hide behind the door :)

More stuffed animals, some pictures that need to be hung, little odds and ends in the drawers, Countess Lola (the aloe) and Spike (the cacti like plant), and a bunch of sewing and scrapbook supplies.  There's also a gorgeous jewelry box on the end that my Grandfather made that does not have a good home yet.  I need some sort of table to put it on that has a large enough surface that its not sticking off the edge. 

Snakey, my books, more scrapbooking and the edge of the second window and the desk.

This is the other side of the desk with some bags that need to go various places and the closet door.  Oh so exciting.

My Desk!  Well okay, my folding table!  With my brand new to me desk chair I just got off freecycle.  Desk is a little cluttered with things that need to find homes.  I'm working on it.  There's also a Dalek there that needs his arm fixed.   Poor little Dalek did not do so hot in the move.

So that is how my craft room sits now.  Some things I need to do:

• Get rug from Ikea.  I wanted purple to go with my blue-green wall so a rug is one of the ways I'm going to bring this in.  The other is...
• Curtains!  Need to find a fabric and make curtains.  Also need to pick up another dollar store curtain rod.
• Treadmill.  The empty place where the jewelry box is is reserved for a treadmill.  This will take me having some extra cash so it may wind up waiting until after Christmas.
• Home the random stuff on my desk
• Hang some pictures
• Get a bulletin board and cover in purple something and hang.  
• Fix poor little Dalek
• Recover desk chair.  I want it to be purple to but I'm skeptical at my ability to cover a desk chair.  Anyone have suggestions?

I'm sure there's more that I'm not thinking of at the moment, but for now that will do.  I also have a number of other projects throughout the apartment I'm thinking of so we'll see how long this all takes.  I imagine by the time I complete this list I'll have new things to add to it :)  Such is the way of things.  

Any advice for my projects?  Other ideas to get some purple into the room?  

Halloween

I know, I know its only September.  As a crafter though I usually have to start planning EARLY for Christmas and Halloween if I plan to have time to make things.  Otherwise on Christmas Day my siblings get wrapped quilt tops that I have to take back home to finish :)  In browsing pinterest for Christmas ideas I found a gorgeous adult floor length tutu on etsy.  All black and perfect for a witch skirt so I decided I'll be a witch for Halloween this year.

Unfortunately, the skirt was $395.  It was labeled as for Prom or a Wedding or whatever.  If I was getting married I'd probably spend the 400 on this gorgeous skirt-it has a beautiful wide ribbon waist and I'm sure its a heck of a lot neater and well done than what I could make.  So instead I browsed some tutu tutorials and decided to give it a go.

While its super easy to do, cutting the tulle is time consuming and its taking an ungodly amount of it.  If my math is good I've already gone through about 3,168 square feet of tulle and its only a little more than halfway around me.  It does, however, look awesome so far.

The picture isn't so great.  I'm thinking its either the lighting in this apartment (which kinda sucks) or I'm due for a new camera.  Or maybe I need to take a class on photography.  Whichever it is- the skirt is mostly black with a burst of a really vibrant purple every so often.  

I've been cutting each strand of tulle 3" wide by 80" long and doing a basic knot around the ribbon waist.  Here's a close up of the waist.

The color is really awful in that photo.  

I started by getting tulle cut from the bolt, but figured out its only a tiny bit more expensive to get these rolls of tulle from Michaels that are 6" x 20 yards and they are immensely easier to deal with and cut.  This is one of the tutorials I looked at when figuring out how to make mine.  I don't think I'm doing the waist band like she did though.  We shall see when I finally make it to that stage though.

Anyone else have a costume planned yet?