Breakity

By Joanne | September 4, 2008

Oh sigh.

I need a blogging break.

I am having a creativity crisis of sorts. Don’t know what I really want to do with my creative self.

Sew & sell creatures? Get more into photography? Become a baking genius?

Actually, I am lying. I do know what I want to do. I want to be a writer. Always have.

But I never write. Not really the best strategy.

And right now, blogging is doing a fabulous job of helping me procrastinate (on the writing of stuff) and I really need to stop (with the procrastinating).

So I need a break. I do not know how long of a break. Days? Weeks? Months? Years? Forever?

Probably not forever (I did just renew my domain). But a little while. Little.

Topics: The Non-crafty | 1 Comment »

Oh evil molars . . .

By Joanne | August 26, 2008

You are on my list!

Making Baby D all miserable. I shake my fist at you! My Fist!

Today he needed a distraction from the misery so we went to the beach. Water! Walking! Birds! Planes! Trucks!

It worked. Phew!

(But you are still on my list, molars.)

Topics: Photography, The Non-crafty | 2 Comments »

Pretzels and Bananas and bean-shaped Pigs

By Joanne | August 24, 2008

I did some baking today.

Pretzels! Soft. Chewy. Salty. Yay! I used our new standing mixer and it was awesome. It kneaded the dough perfectly. It was satiny smooth! And I boiled the pretzels briefly before baking. I thought it would be all annoying and hard and pretzels would be getting lost in the water and I would be all, “Hone, the pretzels were a disaster”. But it was super fun and easy. For me the consistancy was perfect for a bagel, though I am no bagel expert so maybe others would disagree. They were chewy on the outside and fluffy on the inside. I am not a dense bagel fan so I liked the fluffy. Next week I may try making the pretzel dough bagel-shaped and see what happens.

Pretzels:

Fluffy inside:

Then I made banana bread. Banana. Bread. In the mixer. It was like having kitchen help or something. The mixer did all the work. While it mixed I was able to wash dishes and grease a loaf pan. All the tasks in half the time. Awesome.

Finally, many many moons ago (or maybe just a month) I made a little pig for Baby D’s friendy Baby G. Her birthday was in early August but due to illness and grandparent visits and general schedule incompatibility, Baby G’s mom and I were unable to hang out until just last week. Thus, her giftie was given way late. AND I did not want to post pics until she had gotten it. So, here it is:

It’s a way different shape than the last pigs. Doesn’t it look like a bean?

Stripey material was a repurposed pajama top and the main body was a repurposed shirt of Baby D. All repurposed! Woo!

With the other pigs. Suddenly the original pigs look like they are alien pigs or something.

OMG! I almost forgot there are babies everywhere! One of my oldest friends (D) just had her second baby boy. He was a little early at 32 weeks but is doing great. AND one of Hone’s oldest friends (T) just had a baby boy too! Awwwwwwwwwww! Babies!

Topics: Foodie, Sewing (repurposed), Sewing | 1 Comment »

My computer is a big fat poopyhead

By Joanne | August 14, 2008

At least, I believe that is the technical term for it.

Anyway, with all its late night internet partying, it got itself a virus that was so wily, two programs could not detect it. Ahhhh, but the third found the little bastard holed up in one of my files. We zapped it BUT my browser still won’t work (it is also, apparently, a poopyhead).

Hone thinks he may be able to fix it by reinstalling my operating system. If that doesn’t work then we will have to wipe my computer’s brains.

Sigh. I hate that. I have to copy all my files and save them elsewhere. Then my computer gets erased and THEN I have to get it all fixed up again, putting my files back and resetting all my preferences. Bleh. It takes forever.

So cross your fingers that the operating system reinstall will do the trick. And soon. I am on Hone’s computer right now and it feels weird. It’s like using someone else’s toothbrush or something. And his touchpad is set way more sensitive than mine so I keep overshooting things and clicking on the wrong things. And sigh.

Topics: The Non-crafty | 1 Comment »

Brot

By Joanne | August 9, 2008

Today I baked my first loaf of homemade bread. Oh yes I did!

Okay, it wasn’t actually a loaf. It was three small baguettes but you know. French bread. The simplest recipe for bread.

So I did the whole preparing the starter dough last night and then mixing the rest in this morning and then letting it rise, kneading it (by hand!), letting it rise again, folding it, letting it rise again, shaping it, letting it rise again and finally, baking it. It sounds all involved and crazy time consuming and I know you are all like, “What about Baby D? Where was he all this time?”

But really, bread doesn’t take that long to work on. I mean, it takes all day to make but the actual work time adds up to about 20 minutes. Most of the time it is just sitting in a bowl being all risey and stuff.

ANYWAY, I really thought, by the end, that it was going to be a disaster. I mean, the kneading part was a mess (sticky dough everywhere) and nothing seemed to be happening quite right and I didn’t really know what it was supposed to look like at each stage (what the hell does “bread will become supple and elastic” really mean?). At the last rise, the baguettes nowhere near doubled in size and I was all, “Oh this bread is going to be awful.”

But it totally worked. Like, we totally had baguettes that tasted like bread and everything. The flavor was stronger than store bought baguettes but very yummy.

The baguettes (there were three but the third one was scrawny and eaten fresh out of the oven):

Slices:

Buttered:

With lasagna for dinner (mmmmmmmm):

It was neat. I will do it again. But I won’t be kneading by hand next time (yucko!). We just got us a standing mixer. Woo!

Edited to add: We made French Toast with the third baguette this morning. OMG.

Topics: Foodie | 4 Comments »

Win Win

By Joanne | August 6, 2008

So the two winners of my Twice the Fun PiF contest are (off to open a Random Number Generator . . .):

Minnie and Michelle!

Yay!!!!!

I will be contacting you two shortly to get addresses and stuff.

Yay!!!!!!

Topics: The Non-crafty | No Comments »

Dragony Thingie

By Joanne | August 3, 2008

While Baby D and I have been battling the virus that would not die (and it’s sidekick, secondary bacterial infections) I have been chipping away at my latest sewing thing.

It’s a dragon.

I am sorta “meh” on it. I don’t hate it or love it. I don’t think it’s that my standards are too high or that I am too hard on myself. It’s just, the stuff I keep making is . . . is . . . just not “it” yet.

Sigh.

Oh, but I did figure out my stuffed toy regulations issue. It’s actually very simple. I did not start out intending to make toys. I wanted to make cute little stuffed things but not necessarily toys. Then I naturally let Baby D play with stuff when it was done and somehow this morphed (in my mind) into making toys. But no, no toys. I am much too paranoid a person to ever feel comfortable with making toys that other people would buy and give to their babies. I mean, could I ever be sure they were totally safe? What about felt eyes falling off and choking babies? What if they ripped open and babies ate the stuffing? What if a babies poked their eyes on the beautiful tags? What if they came to life at night and ohhhhhhhhh the horrrrooooorrrrr!

Where was I?

Oh yeah, so I never meant to go down the toy route and I will not be making toys. I will be making fun stuffed thingies. I guess people call it soft sculpture art. Babies and kids can appreciate them but they are not toys and should never be played with unattended AND they should only be played with gently since hand stitiching = not very sturdy. And no washing machines.

Baby D is never very interested in what I make anyway. For the first few minutes maybe. But yeah, not really for babies . . .

Topics: Sewing | 3 Comments »

Twice the fun PiF Contest!

By Joanne | July 30, 2008

Okay, so it’s time for my new PiF contest. And since I won two contests myself in the last round, this time I will be randomly selecting TWO winners from the entries. TWO! Two people can win! There will be two winners! Two! Two! Twooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo!

So leave me a comment if you would like to enter and tell me your favorite animal and color.

Contest will close around 9 pm (Pacific time) next Wednesday (8/6/08). Woo!

Edited to add: In case you are like, PiF-the-what-the-who? It’s pretty simple. If you win my contest, I send you a little giftie and then you host a PiF contest on your blog or, if you do not have a blog, you can send someone in your real life a surprise giftie or something. Just figure out a way to Pay It Forward.

Comments are closed.

Topics: The Non-crafty | 21 Comments »