I pretended to be a pioneer this weekend, except for the electricity and indoor plumbing, oh, and the washer and dryer and gas stove, but other than those little conveniences, it was just like being a pioneer.

I haven't been cooking much more than dinner lately, so I decided to spend a little more time in the kitchen this weekend. When the Angry Chicken mentioned making butter, and 70-some comment-ors shared their enthusiasm, I had to jump on the bandwagon and try it too. I did it in a more pioneer-like way, and shook a pint of cream in a quart-sized mason jar. It was fascinating how the texture changed. First it just got all thick and frothy, and I was worried my jar was too small. Then I could hear it sort of thunk-ing around, and then suddenly it was a solid mass and finally, it turned pale yellow and there was a chunk of butter sitting in a pool of milk. This would be a great home-school science lesson! I recently scored a bunch of mini jello molds, which will soon be turned into pincushions, so I pressed the butter into one of them and let it harden in the fridge for a while and then turned it out on a plate.

The pint of cream made that-which I would estimate is 3/4 to 1 cup, plus another half a stick. I salted it very lightly, really just a couple shakes of kosher salt, and when I tasted it right after it was finished I was worried that I put way too much in, but today it's much better. And I have been eating a lot of slices of bread and butter.

So that was my weekend to-do list up there, and I didn't get it completely finished, but I did make quite a lot of progress. Make Butter: check!

Next up was Make Pickles. I will not be able to tell you how successful that venture was for two or three months, however. Here's a little more pickle backstory: Mr. HeyLucy loves a good antipasto salad, and the last time we had pizza the salad was a little disappointing. We are also trying to be more thrifty and not eating out, so this will be a good thing to try and make ourselves at home. Summer garden plans are in the works, so if the homemade pickling thing works out, we'll plant lots of pickle-friendly vegetables. Also, I was talking to a couple Persian friends at work who told me all about torshi, Persian pickles. One of found this recipe and sent it to me. I modified it a little, and made it a bit more Italian style (because I'm such an Italian cuisine expert). Here are all my vegetables, ready to be mixed and put in jars. The bowl is full of herbs and vinegar, and it smelled delicious, although now I need a break from the smell of vinegar for at least a couple days.

 

Vegetables are pretty! Clockwise, from the top left we have green pepper, cucumbers (the little persian ones), herb-y vinegar, cauliflower, carrots, cooked eggplant (not too much of that, I wasn't sure if we would like it), whole garlic cloves, and celery. I ended up with five quarts and one pint. Now it has to sit for a couple months and then we can enjoy it! Make Pickles: check!

Next up, Sew Skirt. Didn't happen. I have some pretty grey linen for a Summer skirt, and I want to sew lots of rick-rack around the bottom, but the fabric store I went to on Friday only had purple, so I will have to go on a rick-rack hunt next week. Sew Skirt will move to the top of the list for next weekend.

Gather Moss. I don't think I'm ready to take the dogs out again, my hand should be healed by next weekend, however, so that stays on the list. The dogs each got a little brushing, and therefore quality one-on-one time with me instead, and it's not like there was a moss emergency. My terrarium in the little house studio is doing quite well, I will have to take a progress picture so you can see how pretty and green it is.

Sew Blouse. Well, it's cut out, so that one gets a partial check. I hope to work on it this week, so expect to hear more about this later.

Sweep Driveway. We have a big driveway. Between dogs digging and chickens scratching, and wind blowing, it gets messy. I got a lot swept, so I'm giving myself a check mark, but there is one more corner to do, so it will be back on the list next week too.

Do laundry. Done! Although not yet put away, at least it's all folded. Maybe tomorrow I will finish putting it away, and then I will get my check mark.

Make Pincushions. Well, I tried, but more experimenting is needed. I did make a strawberry with emory sand, so I'm kind of excited about that. I made one attempt with the aforementioned mini jello molds, but I have to try again. No check mark, back on the list.

 

I'm excited to make some new little sets, with wool-stuffed pincushions and emory-filled strawberries, and maybe even matching needlebooks.

Bake a Cake. Specifically, Nigella's Clementine Cake. I've been wanting to make this forever, or at least for the last three months. So forever might be an exageration, but I finally did it today. And it's good, but not quite as outstanding as I was expecting. She does say that she prefers it the next day, so maybe my opinion will change tomorrow. I think I might like it more with a simple orange glaze. It's flourless, so it might be a good recipe to add to your reportoire if you need a gluten-free cake. Also, it's not all that exciting to look at:

 

So that was my weekend to-do list. I should have included Pick Flowers, because that would have earned me another check mark.

 

I hope you won't mind just a few more pictures of daffodils and grape hyacinth, but we have to enjoy them while we can!

 

I love that bright orange center, and how about that extreme bokeh, eh? 

 

I just love these tiny things. That photo is worth looking at full-sized. This version is straight out of the camera, but I played with some Photoshop actions and added those versions to flickr.

Read More

Just a quick list of links to some beautiful things I love today:

• This song, I can't stop listening to it.
• This shawl, it's all I can do not to drop everything and go make it.
• This photo, and all the others in her shop. That is a real fawn, by the way.

That's all for now. Have a nice weekend!

Read More

I still have a ways to go on this scarf, but I think it's pretty, so I wanted to show it off even though it's not done. I love the asymmetry of it. The pattern is the Juliet scarf from  Knitting Little Luxuries. I've been knitting in little blocks of time here and there, and it's steadily growing.

Those little blocks of time are like tonight, after a nearly two hour drive home because it started raining, and a quick change into pj's and hopping into bed to catch up on some favorite shows online. Heavenly!

Also, you may have noticed that my photos are quite bright, despite the fact that it is 10 pm. I owe this amazing display of light all to my new little friend, the Nikon SB-400 Speedlight. I bounced the flash off the ceiling for these two pictures, nothing more complicated then that. I feel like I've opened a whole new world for photography in the evenings after work with this handy little tool.

Read More

I had big plans for a productive weekend, but then I decided to do some knitting and the laundry is not done, the chicken coop is still in need of cleaning, and we won't even discuss the state of the bathroom. It was necessary, you see, when I went in search of some new pants the other night, and found a cute little jacket on the sale rack at Macy's. Regularly $89, marked down to $19.99! So I had to get it, but it only has 3/4 sleeves, and it's chilly up here in the mountains, and in my air conditioned office, so I thought some arm warmers were called for. I used this easy-peasy pattern, but made a few adjustments. I know my arms are a little larger than average, so I cast on 42 instead of 34. I never did check my gauge, but that ended up working well for my arms. I also made them pretty long, because I have gangly monkey arms, and I wanted them to go nearly to my elbow. Then I finished off the finger-tip edge with a little scalloped crochet border. I think they are quite cozy, and they were super easy and fast. If you haven't knit in the round before, they're a great little project to learn with, since there's no shaping, just straight knitting.

Here's the scallop edge pattern, in case you want to try it: single crochet all the way around the edge. On the next round slip one and in the next stitch, single crochet, double crochet and single crochet. Repeat these two stitches all the way around. I am probably not using the correct crochet lingo, but I'm still a novice, and probably the world's slowest crocheter. I'm getting the hang of it though.

Oh, and I did manage to find one pair of pants. They're a size smaller than I've been wearing, and fit pretty well, so that made me a happy shopper. And they were also on sale.

Since I blew off all my other responsibilities I decided to play around with my macro filters again. I can't get the 10+ one to work, but the 4+ is nice. Here is a tiny, 2" tall meerkat:

He reminds my of a trip to the zoo with my sister and brother-in-law at the beginning of the year. We had our new cameras and took a lot of pictures of the meerkats, because they were so darn cute. I've watched Meerkat Manor a time or two, but they were kind of mean to each other, so I prefer to think of them as the cute little critters we watched that day at the zoo.

And how cute are these tiny mushroom dishes?


They were a Re-ment purchase, and I got pretty lucky to get this little set. Re-ment are the Japanese version of Cracker Jacks, except with these you get one tiny piece of candy, and a really great prize, such as a set of mushroom dished, complete with 1/2" tall salt and pepper shakers.

What is it about tiny things that makes them so endearing? I loved doll houses and miniatures since I was little. I even got a doll house kit one year for Christmas or my birthday. It had all the pieces stamped into thin plywood, and theoretically you would just pop them out and glue them together. My dad helped me with it, and I did my best, but inevitably the pieces would splinter when you popped them out, and they never fit together quite right. I don't think we ever finished it. I still think it would be fun to decorate and furnish a doll house.

Read More

I'm tired of that apple pie post, so it's time for something new. Unfortunately it's almost 10 p.m. and I'm tired, so I'm going to write a short post about fungi. I like mushrooms, but I don't know much about them. Interestingly, we have quite a unique specimen growing on one of our oak trees. We know it is interesting because one day we found a note on our front gate from a gentleman who was making a documentary about mushrooms and he asked if he could return to film our Chicken of the Woods mushroom for his movie. We called him to let him know we were happy for our fungi to have it's 15 minutes of fame, but sadly, his funding fell through and the compelling drama of the world of fungi has yet to be made.

Our tree has since died, but we left the massive trunk standing, and the Chicken of the Woods are still growing.

Last week, Jamie Oliver made Wild Mushroom and Venison Stroganoff and he used a chicken of the woods mushroom. I'm not sure if my culinary skills are up to something so exotic. I've never cooked venison and don't know any hunters, but it did look pretty good.

I also got some macro filters for my camera last week and took some extreme closeups.

For those of you not fond of fungi, I'll leave you with a little Winston shmoopie love.

How can you not love that little furry face?

Read More

This photo has nothing to do with the rest of this post. I just bought some orchids at Trader Joe’s this weekend, because they were so pretty (and cheap!).

Because I’m the oldest of five, I have to give out advice, solicited or unsolicited, even though it drives me crazy when my mother-in-law tries to give me advice. I try not to be a know-it-all, but sometimes I can’t help myself. I don’t think I know everything, of course, but I do have a lot of trivial bits of information floating around in my head, most of it useless, but there are a few little gems knocking about in there. Anyway, my point is, the purpose of this post is to give you advice, even if you didn’t think you needed it. But Colleen made an interesting comment in the last post, about writing in a blank book, and that is not the first time I’ve heard that, and I have often felt that way myself!

If you are like me, and I suspect a lot of you are in this way, you love blank books, moleskin notebooks, paper and pens, back-to-school supplies and all that kind of stuff. But what do you do when faced with a brand new blank page in that pretty new journal you just had to have? You don’t want to ruin it! So you just keep collecting those pretty blank books, and they gather dust while you try to come up with just the right things to put in them. The thing is, I think pretty blank books are even prettier when they start filling up with stuff-so don’t be afraid!

Here are some ideas for getting started:

1. Don’t start with the first page. It’s so intimidating, because you think it has to set the tone for your whole journal/notebook/whatever book. Just choose a page, the second page, maybe, or a middle page, or even the last page, and just start writing or sketching, or whatever you feel like doing.

2. Use a pencil, that way, if you hate it, you can just erase it! Once you’ve filled a few pages, switch to pen. Just be sure to find a pen you like to write with, and try to keep it with your book at all times. I use a pencil all the time for sketching in my book, and write notes and lists in pen. I love a good, fine, black rollerball pen.

3. Find a picture that inspires you, and tape or glue it onto one of the first pages of your book. You don’t even have to write about it, just putting it in there and looking at it every now and then can inspire you.

Some other references that I like on this subject:
How to Make a Journal of your Life, by Dan Price
Commonplace Book (wikipedia)
Making Journals by Hand by Jason Thompson
Encyclopedia of an Ordinary Life, by Amy Krouse Rosenthal-this could be a fun way to keep a journal, as encyclopedic entries.

Do you keep a journal or notebook? How did you get started?

Oh, and I wrote all this a few days ago, and here is what my brother said today. See what happens when you ignore my advice?

Read More