Wednesday, February 29, 2012

Decision!

I'm just going to make my own frames from now on. Work my cross-stitches into quilted wall-hangings. YEAH! Also it'll use up all the fabric from the Beartato potholders which is brown and which there is too much of.

Friday, February 24, 2012

Baking!

Even though I've been working a part time job AND a part time internship, I've found that the wonderful thing about this winter has been that I have absolutely no homework. I didn't realize how freeing it can be to do something every day but COME HOME and think about nothing but creative lovely little things. So yes, I've been baking a lot. Latest thing I tried were Sabra Krock's Maple Sour Cream Walnut muffins. You can find the recipe here. I would say the recipe is perfect: it tastes great right out of the oven, and even after a couple of days they get a little soaked in maple syrup and start tasting like the perfect pancake masquerading as a muffin. The only thing is that the recipe says it makes about a dozen muffins, and to bake them for 10-12 minutes. I ended up with 24 muffins and each batch took about 18-20 minutes. My oven's a little on the cold side though.

Still, considering the last time I tried to make muffins (even before Quinn street, I think) This was a pretty fantastic result.

In any case, I'm looking to bake more delicious things. I'm in Hamilton at the moment which means I don't have:
  • a pastry blender
  • a springform pan
  • a hand or stand mixer
  • mixing bowls 
  • a pie dish
  • ingredients
  • money
So...  yeah...

Wednesday, February 22, 2012

Movie Recommendation

Just watched Mary and Max. If I wasn't already sold on it, the typewriter scene would have clinched it for sure. A favourite maybe.

The Neil Young eReader Case (and other odds and ends)

 Don't you love it when this happens? The Gevulde Speculaas was a hit, so I made it again with the leftover ingredients. I really didn't think I'd have enough ground almonds and tried to minimize losing any excess from measuring cup spillage so I busted out the scale! Dumped the lot onto the scale and it was EXACTLY the amount I needed.
 Dante doesn't need a blanket on Sunny days, but he does sleep just as much. He was watching me bake for a while, but it was too much for him.


 Oh right, the reason I hadn't been using my studio is because this mess was still there. Didn't take long to clean up though, so I free-handed a new ereader case! I have no idea what happened to my last one. I must have gotten stuffed into my brother's couch when I was visiting him or something.


But anyway, I kind of like this one better. It's not so overtly floral, and I didn't do any quilting stitches at all, although it does have batting in it. Also, the fabric perfectly matched these little doodads that Katherine once gave me "in case I ever think of something to do with them." I think she found them in the street. But the point is, I DID find something to do with them!


Something pretty cool, I think.


I was thinking of embroidering it a bit too, but even though I don't say it much, sometimes embroidery floss and I REALLY don't get along. I don't even know how this happened.

Oh, and I've been working on small cross stitch projects for too long. I'd been dying to get back to this one, completely forgetting how mind bogglingly difficult it is.

One more thing: Does anyone know where I can things framed cheaply in the area? I've been going to Michael's but I'm cleaned out of funds even with their 60% + $10 off coupon.

Tuesday, February 14, 2012

I had a dream about the perfect pants.

So I'm going to make them. One day.

In the mean time, it's Wallenstiens day, and while I like to celebrate with nothing special (spending money just makes me uncomfortable), I'm already feeling like pretty much the luckiest girl in the world.

Lame out.

Sunday, February 12, 2012

Speculaas!

Here they are! Weird things: the almond paste filling has egg in it, but the dough does not. While this worked for me because the almond paste is my favourite part, it was a little surprising to cut into this and find about three times more almond paste than I thought there was going to be.

 And congratulations to Erin on writing her LSAT! To celebrate we got a bottle of this because we're ridiculous, and also Ziggy came by to say hello. That's kind of a big deal guys.

Saturday, February 11, 2012

Quinn Street Cameo!

Well, not exactly. But I did, while still living on Quinn Street, decide to make mostly Dutch recipes from a book I got out of the library. After realizing that I owed nine dollars in late fees, I begrudgingly scanned my favourites and returned the book. This was, what, a year and a half ago?

Point is, I finally made one of the recipes. BUT WHICH ONE?! Since I've been meaning to make speculaas since December, I guess it's not really a secret. But Dutch baking makes me so happy. There are so many things in my kitchen that are too specific to use most of the time, like the full sized salmon poacher, or the pepper mill, or the speculaas moulds or pretty much everything. So! I used four spices that were on the shelf that I've never used before, the special nutmeg grater that I have used before, the mortar and pestle which I'd never used before because it apparently doesn't work, but generally found that my kitchen was favourable to making Dutch favourites.

Such characters in today's tableau are: My favourite Emile Henry yellow baking dish! Using this always makes me happy. Alas, describing it as "my favourite" kind of implies that it is mine. Let me specify that none of this equipment belongs to me.

 The ever charming pepper mill, out of which I had to rescue a handful of cloves from god knows when. Actually this mill has a sordid past. It sits on a very high shelf and is never used because my mom hates it. Turns out an ex girlfriend gave it to my father forty years ago, or something. But it's so PERFECT for grinding spices.
 The recipe I was using said that the dough could also be used in wooden cookie moulds, if I had them. At first I thought "who would ever have those" and then remembered. OH, HEEEEEEY: special guest star!
 Oh my goodness. I cleaned this, don't worry.
 WHAT DO THEY LOOK LIKE?!
Awesome. But it's a surprise. They're cooling. Also the cookies didn't turn out very well. Plus I've already eaten them.

Free things to make your money woes go away

Baking for friends with Rachmaninoff. Why? Stravinsky would only scare them.

So I've run out of money and can't pay my credit card bill. AGAIN. People should give me money for things that I make.

I'm going to cheer myself up by drinking coffee and finding out what pinterest is.

Thursday, February 9, 2012

Packaging Woes

Many days after I finished the lapghan, I finally bought a box! Then the box sat in its wrapping on my stairs for a few days. Then I put the box together, put the lapghan in, and wrote the little note to go with :)

Then I realized there was no packing tape in my house. Not a problem, I thought. There's packing tape at work. But just in case, I asked my mom, and got a "p-... pah... what?" Turns out she didn't even know what it is, so of course we don't have any. I guess I get it, although she helped me move that one time and we used so much packing tape I don't know how you could ever forget it.

ANYWAY, so I took this open package to work and got to show off my crocheting skills which was pretty neat. Except when I looked for the packing tape it WASN'T THERE. I ask maintenance, but it's locked in the housekeeping office. I try to get in touch with head of housekeeping, but she's in a meeting. Not a problem, I just waited until later and got the whole hotel on it, so now uh... maybe there's a little too much tape on it. We went a little crazy.

Also, it's now sitting in my car, since I haven't had a chance to go to a post office since all this happened.

Otherwise, still thinking about possible visas and moving and other languages and all that. Have decided to follow this blog for ideas, inspiration, possible solidarity.

In other news, I licked a lot of envelopes today. Reminds me of making school valentines back in the day. 

Wednesday, February 1, 2012

Not much to add. I'm definitely going to get that last project done! But if I show any of it, the recipient will know what it is, so I'll just save my process shots for later.

And I bought a box from the post office so I can have a lovely adventure of mailing out the last present! What the point in finishing it days and days ago was, I don't really know.

I've got all my documents and references for my application to Simon Fraser submitted, and the internship starts tomorrow.

If only, and I can't believe I'm saying this with everything I have to do, if only I were working more in the next week and a half.

Except OH YEAH I'm going cross country skiing with my mom this weekend!

And Dieu Du Ciel has a barley wine in he LCBO currently.

GOOD. WEEK.