Christmas presents in progress

Remember the felt of last post? Well my project has been started. Here's a little peak at some of the stuff lying on my dining room table. Hopefully I can make my way through the entire alphabet in time.

All the colours of the rainbow!

So I was looking for some felt for some baby projects that I'm going to make in the future. I really wanted to go for a plush wool-blend type felt, but I decided that an acrylic felt would probably be best for its machine wash-ability.

Well I ordered a colour bundle of eco-felt from Felt-o-rama and you can see all the beautiful colours I received. I'm eager to get started when the rest of my materials arrive.

Fallen off the Blog train

I guess it didn't take very long for me to fail at posting. However, I have kept making stuff, although, it hasn't been at quite such an ambitious pace as I had set out to achieve at the beginning.

I'll try to get to posting some of my recent crochet & knit objects. I recently discovered ravelry and the bajillion patterns that are there. You should see my queue, it's 10 miles long now. JoAnn had some yarn sale going on so I bought a bunch of cheap cotton handicrafter yarn to play around with. I also got some crochet thread so maybe I'll hop on the doily fun train.

Also, with it being almost October it's time to start making things for Christmas gifts! Of course I generally just plan to make people hats, scarfs and mitts (toys for the little ones). Hopefully I can some day graduate beyond objects that have no gauge requirements.

Basil Garlic Pesto!

I guess first of all I should let everyone know that my tomato plants survived just fine somehow. They're still ok (for now) despite my best efforts to snuff them from existence with abuse. I spent the last week hardening off the plants and later today I shall transfer one to its permanent home for the season, a 16-inch planter.

My basil was getting rather spindly looking and very tall so I made an executive decision to lop off the top. I have provided a before and after picture of my Basil plant. I must admit that I haven't been the most attentive in pruning it (and I feel bad about cutting my plants even though I'm growing them so I can eat them) so it didn't really bush out like it's supposed to. Maybe after lopping off the top it'll look better in a few days.

Anyhow, after cutting off the top, I attempted to make some pesto with the leaves that I had cut off. Lacking a mortar and pestle, food process or real blender, I resorted to chopping the leaves into little itty bits by hand. I threw the basil and some garlic chopped up the same way into a small bowl and mixed it all together with a bit of olive oil.

I think I ended up with a bit too much garlic and not quite enough basil since my garlic cloves were huge and my basil leaves were few, but hopefully it will all taste delicious.

Oh no, I might have murdered my tomato plants!

Today I attempted to re-pot my little tomato plants that you can see growing in this picture. I wanted to separate them so they'd have some more room before I move them to their final container (and when I popped 'em out the roots were starting to grow along the bottom of the container). However, in my attempt to separate the two of them I broke some of the roots.

I'm pretty sure that damaging the roots is a BAD THING, just hopefully not so bad that they die. I guess I'll find out over the next few days if they're going to survive or not. Wish them luck!

Garden Obsession

Since I last posted about my container garden, I decided to dig up the zucchini seeds that I planted in the container that was too small and I planted some bok choy in that container instead. As of today, I officially have some bok choy seedlings. Of course, the picture I took of them was very bad and blurry so you'll have to make do with your imagination on what they look like.

I also picked up a strawberry plant from the grocery store! Its cute furry little stems and leaves called out to me to buy it! Boy, it sure is growing pretty fast, lots of new leaves coming out from when I bought it last weekend. I just hope I can keep it alive long enough to get some strawberries from it.

Of course, my basil is still coming along. It has it's first leaves starting to grow now, so exciting! Now I know I really need to get rid of the extraneous plants here, but I feel a little bad about killing off the ones that I don't need. I wonder if anyone else feels guilty about thinning seedlings.

Container Gardening

So I got this idea into my mind that it would be great to have some fresh vegetables this summer. However, living in a condo, I don't have a yard in which I can make a garden. Therefore, I have turned to containers.

Now I have never gardened before, so I'm not really sure how well this is going to work out. I planted some basil seeds in a yogurt container which I'm keeping indoors, and some zucchini seeds in a container outside. Of course, only later did I read that the container I used for my zucchini is far too small and I discovered that i had planted them wrong and possibly too early. So it remains to be seen if I'll have any that manage to grow.

At least my gardening experience so far hasn't been all bad news. This morning I discovered that my basil is growing! I have to say that discovering this got me thoroughly excited. Now I just hope it lives long enough for me to be able to use it.

Roasted Asparagus

Can asparagus be roasted? Yes, it can.

I suppose that the answer to the question should have been obvious. I mean what would stop asparagus from being roasted? (Are there any vegetables that you can't roast?) But then I never cooked it this way until recently.

Roasted Asparagus

• Asparagus
• 3 cloves minced garlic
• Olive oil to coat
• salt & pepper to taste
• balsamic vinegar

1. Preheat oven to 425 F.
   
2. Prepare the asparagus (break off the tough ends).
3. Toss with olive oil, garlic, salt and pepper.
4. Place in a shallow baking dish.
5. Cook for 15-20 minutes or until desired tenderness.
6. Sprinkle with a small amount of balsamic vinegar if desired.

Knitting mistakes

Continuing with my hat obsession, I also worked on knitting one. I'm not sure what possessed me to try knitting in a round on DPNs when I can barely knit, but I tried anyhow. I would like to state for the record that working in a round in knitting is a bit of a pain, and all those needles get in the way of your hands.

Anyhow, sitting on the Kirby plushy is the hat that I made. Why is it on a Kirby plushy you ask? Well I made a mistake and the hat was too small. Either I measured my gauge wrong, or I measured my head wrong. In the end, I'm not sure which, but the results are the same; the hat ended up a tad too snug for my head. At least Kirby can go out in style now.

Hooked on hats

After my initial foray into crocheting, I wanted to start on a wearable small project. So that's where hats came in. I figured that crocheting a hat had to be something akin to knitting a scarf. So off I went to find out how. So I started with instructions from threadbanger for a hat that was rather similar to the amigurumi that I was previously making. It was simply single crochets in a spiral. Then I added a little crochet flower for embellishment. The flower I originally made was this loopy flower but it just didn't fit that hat so I took what I learned from there and made my own simpler flower.

After my first hat was completed I started onto a second one. Since I had already done so much single crocheting, I wanted to do some double crochet stitches. So I made a hat consisting mostly of double crochet in rounds (I read about working in rounds and I think I figured it out now, but I can't be certain). And then I threw in some rows of puff stitches at the end. Of course since I didn't use a pattern and I made it up as I went along it ended up in a funny shape. So it was a bit of a failed hat :(

This did not dissuade me from making yet another hat, and throwing in yet another complication. Bored with the monochrome creations, I wanted to work with more than one colour! So after studying a few patterns on how to shape a hat to ones head (and constantly testing what I was making on my own head) I was at it again. To the left is the hat that I made up to fit my head(the pink and brown one).

Amigurumi

Since the end of my yarn has finally been freed from the scarf that I was knitting, I wanted to learn some crochet. Around the internet I've seen all sorts of cute crocheted things called amigurumi. Since the yarn I ordered for a hat hadn't arrived yet, these seemed like the perfect little mini projects to learn crochet.

So I started with a mouse pattern that I found on the net and learned how to single crochet in a spiral, how to do increases and decreases, and what a slip stitch is (as well as how nice it would have been to have something to mark the beginning of my row rather than trying to keep track of the number of stitches).

Using the knowledge that was gained from making the mouse (and a safety pin to mark rows), I then decided to try a bunny pattern. But this one was done in rounds instead of a spiral and confused me completely (I'll have to figure out how to crochet in rounds some time). I ended up with odd shapes rather than spheres, so instead I just said "screw it" and made something up on my own. You can see the results for yourself.

And then lastly I tried to make something that sort of resembled a sheep. It still needs some eyes to see with. I'll have to find something to use for that.

Rope Scarf

So here's the scarf that I was finishing up. The weave I made kinda curled up so now it looks like a rope. Oh well at least it's done at last!

Italian Cookies

I had this leftover ricotta cheese that I had to find a way to use up. So I headed over to allrecipes to do an ingredient search and this is what I found. I'll let you head over there to check out the recipe if you choose to do so.

These cookies are really soft, moist and more cake-like than what usually think of a cookie. Unfortunately, they also don't seem to store that well. My glaze seems to have sort of melted and dissolved since yesterday so they don't look quite so pretty anymore. If I made this again I'm not sure if I'd frost them because they seemed pretty tasty already on their own.

Birthday Card

Happy birthday! Who's it for? I'm afraid I can't say. Too bad the paper cake piece on there is any sort of real substitute for an actual cake piece.

Double Chocolate Chip Cookies

Why what do we have here? Delicious chocolatey cookies, that's what! I spent the afternoon in the kitchen making a couple dozen cookies. Unfortunately I didn't seem to ever get the cooking time quite right so the middle was a little undercooked (but I know some people like that).

Double Chocolate Chip Cookies

• 1 cup butter
• 3/4 cup white sugar
• 3/4 cup packed brown sugar
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1/8 teaspoon almond extract (optional)
• 2 eggs
• 2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1/2 cup cocoa powder
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 2 cups semisweet chocolate chips

1. Preheat the oven to 350° F (190° C).
2. In a large bowl, cream together the butter and sugar until smooth. Beat in the vanilla extract (and almond extract) and eggs one at a time.
3. Combine the flour, cocoa, baking soda and salt; stir into the butter mixture.
4. Mix in the chocolate chips. Drop by tablespoonfuls onto ungreased cookie sheets.
5. Bake for 9 to 12 minutes in the preheated oven, or until edges are golden. Let cool on sheet for a minute then remove to cool on wire racks.

Mmmm, pancakes

Sometimes I think breakfast is one of my favourite meals. You can eat all sorts of delicious things for breakfast like pancakes! Pictured here are some banana pancakes cooking on my griddle before they were covered with maple syrup (the real stuff) and placed in my stomach. I don't really have an official recipe that I use for these, just a list of ingredients I copied down the ingredients on a little bit of lined paper, but I'll share it just the same.

Basic Pancakes

• 2 cups all-purpose flour, sifted
• 1 tablespoon sugar
• 4 teaspoons baking powder
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 2 eggs, beaten
• 1 2/3 cup milk
• 4 tablespoons cooking oil

1. Mix together the flour, sugar, baking powder and salt in a medium bowl.
   
2. Mix together the eggs, milk and cooking oil in a large bowl.
3. Add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredient mixture and mix until smooth.
4. Heat your griddle to medium (coat with a bit of vegetable oil before hand if yours isn't non-stick) and wait for it to be hot enough -- water drops should sizzle on it.
5. Pour about 1/3 cup batter onto the pan per pancake, or however much you want to get the size you desire.
6. Wait until the top is all bubblely and it looks like it's cooked about half-way through and then flip, the pancake side should be golden brown. Cook the other side until it's also golden brown. note: if the outside browns too quickly, turn down the temperature of the pan.
   

To give these some banana flavour, I added 2 small mashed bananas to the wet ingredients, used 1/3 cup less milk and added about 1/2 teaspoon of vanilla.

Housework

Unfortunately things such as housework and going over finances has kept me away from my projects, but that should be finished with soon. I have been working on finishing this scarf that I started knitting 2 years ago, and then stopped knitting. So I'll post that up when I finally finish (hopefully not in another 2 years).

Paper beads

The past few days I was busy rolling a Bath & Bodyworks flyer (and a Denny's flyer) into some paper beads. I still have to buy materials in order to finish them so they're all sealed and shiney, but here they are at the moment. My fingers are a little sore now so I'm going to have to take a break from this and find something else to do.

And speaking of finding things to do, I guess I'll also have to come up with a project to use these beads after I get a chance to finish them properly.

Mini Bouquet and Technicolor Valentine Tag

So I've been pretty bad about posting to this blog it seems, but at least I'm keeping up with the creating. Here are a couple things that I made over the past few days.

The first thing is this little valentines tag. Which if I keept making valentines themed stuff I really don't know what I'll do with it all because I'm going to have more than I can possibly give to one person. This of course was made with a heart shaped craft punch. The coloured paper is from a sheet showing a sample of different origami papers you could buy. You can't really tell from the picture, but the hearts are raised with 1/8" quilling paper, so they are not sitting flat on the tag

This bouquet was also made with a heart craft punch, although it was a smaller one. The bouquet itself is about 10 cm long from the bottom to the tip of the longest piece of "grass". This took a while to make because I had to wait for the glue to dry enough. I actually made 3 more of the heart flowers that I didn't include in the bouquet. The little white flowers weren't nearly so time-consuming to make and I just simply crinkled up some white cardstock. Hopefully you don't think that they look all that bad. I tied it all together with a little piece of black embroidery floss and glue.

Papercraft heart

I went searching the internet for a papercraft heart and for the most part came up empty handed so I went about designing my own (yay for Inkscape). I made this one out of some scrap paper since I really wasn't sure if my design would even fit together, and have since managed to mangle my work, but at least I managed to get a picture of it before I did so. I mean to make another one later out of stronger paper.

Day 8: Metroid Complete

So I spent a lot of time yesterday sewing together the metroid plushie and finished it this morning. As promised, here is a picture of the little guy. I think he's trying to eat my lamp but finding the plastic a little hard to digest.

I also busted out the slow cooker and made some pork chops in it yesterday. They were nice and tender (completely unlike the tough unchewable ones my parents made when I was a kid -- sorry mom & dad) and there's still leftovers for tonight. I probably should have taken a picture to share them, but I have to admit that they aren't all that pretty to look at.

In case you wanted to try making your own pork chops in the slow cooker, the recipe I used was modified from this one here at all recipes.

• 6 boneless pork chops
• 1/4 cup brown sugar
• 1 teaspoon ground ginger
• 1/4 cup soy sauce
• 1/4 cup honey
• 1/4 cup ketchup
• 2 cloves garlic, crushed
• salt and pepper to taste

1. Arrange the pork chops in the bottom of your slow cooker. Mix together all of the remaining ingredients to combine the sauce. Pour the sauce over the pork chops.
2. Cook on low for 6 hours.
   

Day 6: Metroid plushie start

Today I've started work on a metroid plushie (pattern can be found here). I cut out all the pieces and sewed together the fangs. This will be the second one I'll have made. I have to say that they're cute furry warm things for being based off of terrifying video game creatures. I'll post pictures later after it's finished.

Day 5: Banana nut muffins

Today's creation is a tasty treat. I made these muffins and then ate a couple for lunch almost right out of the oven. Delicious!

The recipe for these came from page 636 of Joy of Cooking I just threw in the remainder of some chocolate chips that I had on hand and added a smidgen extra vanilla because I could.

So if you want to make these yourself, preheat your oven to 375 F. In a bowl, mix together:

1 1/2 cups all purpose flour
1/2 cup whole wheat flour or wheat bran
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking sodea
1/4 teaspooon salt
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/8 teaspoon grated or ground nutmeg

and then stir in:

2/3 cup chopped walnuts

and in another large bowl whisk together:

1 large egg
3/4 cups packed light brown sugar
1 1/3 cup ripe bananas (2 or 3)
1/3 cup vegetable oil
1 teaspoon vanilla

Add the flour mixture to the liquid ingredients and fold until just moistened. Divide the batter into the muffin cups. and bake for 14-16 minutes.

Days 1-4: The Beginning

So I had this idea on the weekend while wondering what to fill my weekdays with, since I have a current problem of unemployment. I decided I wanted to make a thing a day (real or digital), or at least make notable progress on a multi-day project. Then I thought maybe I'd blog about it; not so much to contribute to the blogging world (I'm a terrible writer and I know it) but to keep a record for myself. But maybe if you're reading this, you'll be interested in what happens. While I was good about creating something in the past few days, I didn't really follow up with the blogging part of it. Allow me to present the items from days 1-4.

Day 1: A mini-takeout box that I decorated with a butterfly craft punch. The paper that I punched was actually a flyer that was laying around. I thought it had some nice colours.

Day 2: A fractal image made in apophysis. So this one isn't all that exciting I must admit, but at least it's something.

Day 3: Here is a teddy bear model made in Google Sketchup. I played around with Google sketchup for a bit but the finer points still elude me. I think it'll be a while before I ever make anything of note with that program. Or maybe I just suck at 3d-modeling.

Day 4: This blog! I have to say that trying to find a URL name that wasn't taken was driving me insane.

And that's all for today.