It took me a while to "recover" from the january daily blogging. I guess I discovered chronic pain last month... and was in denial; blogging some serious crap in the meanwhile. A muscle in my back -- which I had messed up in a glorious sledding adventure -- was giving me trouble, and I didn't understand that it would be long term and thought it just needed to heal. Yeah, right.

Anyway, finally; I got going on some projects...

Whoa!

This thing, a Single Cable Scarf, said "intermediate" skill level, and I gave it a try anyway. Confusing instructions, but I got it down and now I'm cranking it out!

I am incredibly proud of this scarf! My stitches aren't perfect, but it is way fun and I can't wait to incorporate the raised stitches into my own designs.

Tag: crochet

What the heck happened to the weekend?! I got a couple chores done on saturday... and then evidently I was done with real life. Since then I've been drinking or napping!

laughs!

I've been reading The Pillow Book of Sei Shonagon (very slowly) and enjoying the "published" journal aspects immensely. As a journal, it is completely fascinating to me. And as a reflection of a culture that I know nothing of -- 990AD Japan -- I'm surprised that the footnotes fascinate me as much as the journal!

And, in synchronicity, one of my egroups introduced an article concerning Wabi-sabi, a Japanese world view:
Wabi-Sabi: The Art Of Imperfection

"The Art of Imperfection"?

!!!

Whoa! Wikipedia "Wabi-sabi": Richard R. Powell, "nothing lasts, nothing is finished, and nothing is perfect"
Wikipedia: Wabi and sabi both suggest sentiments of desolation and solitude.

!!!

"desolation and solitude"? Really?!

Okay. so this is another thing I need to research.

Oh my gosh, I fell in love with this photo even before I took it. It was extreme luck that one of my shots came out non-blurry!

Wow! I love all the sticks all over the place! And that's a crow... she was picking through the moss, looking for something to eat, I suppose.

I have been wondering what my february project should be. Draw every day? Photo every day? More blogging?

Photos during this time of year are so very Grey. But this picture makes me want to take my camera everywhere! Suddenly, I love grey!

*laughs*

So, the back pain has returned... with a vengeance. eh. The first thing I do in the morning is make my bed, and that's also when that muscle in my back, announces itself. So the grumpiness started pretty early.

Retail Therapy? Yeah. Fortunately at the day job I am surrounded by art supplies!

Last weekend, I was writing my monthly exchange postcards with my sky blue Multiliner SP. And I was wondering why blue? Why don't I have a green Multiliner?? Or a purple one? Sky blue is great and all... but I must have variety!

Today, my Copic order started with olive, purple and turquoise Multiliner SPs.

But I figured, if I'm buying things at work, I should probably get some markers too.

And the gathering began. I thought I was aiming for five or six markers. When I had 14 markers, "Somebody Please Stop Me!" I handed in my order.

I've decided that the YG67 is my favorite shade of green. It's the medium green at the bottom of the index card. It's called "Moss".

The Multiliners are on the side there, with the 0.3 printed on the top of the cap.

A Pen discussion...

My old favorite pen -- Uniball Vision Exact... now called Uniball Vision Needle -- I love this pen. It costs about 2$ and with liquid ink there are no refills. The needle point and that vivid dark black ink; those things make me happy.

The Multiliner SPs are going to be my new favorite pen. It costs 9$, and the refills cost $2.50. The SP pen is needle-like, but the tip is a plastic nib rather than the ball point that Uniball has. It has a different feel to it, that's for sure. But the nib is replaceable as well in the SP, so I feel free to write as intensely as I usually do and pound on it all I want!

I was trying to get my old technology (my ancient Palm handheld) to play nicely with my new technology (the new computer, Sheep)... and I rediscovered my drawing program on my Palm.

I should draw more. ;)

I had enough energy today to (almost) power walk on my way home from work. The supervisor has returned to supervising, so no more stress there. I've finally caught up with my sleep, and possibly related: my back is finally starting to feel better.

And I just realized I've not been practicing the sign language in ages. I've bought more books and haven't finished reading any of my old books. I'm not journaling, not drawing. And I've even been mean and stupid at my friends.

Sheesh. 2010, not off to the best start.

Begin Again.

This instant, I can work on the sign language! The words I remember: cat, dog, bunny, pig, cow, horse, goat. Day, home? stop. Happy, sad.

So, today let's do colours!
Green! (shake a G)
Purple! (shake a P)
Blue! (twist a B)
Yellow (shake a Y)
Orange (squeeze an orange in your mouth)
Red (index finger down lips)

I was born somewhere in Indiana in 1973.
When I was 6 years old, my family moved to England.
When I was 10, we moved to Wichita, Kansas.
When I was 13 or 14 (?), we moved to Shreveport, Louisiana.
I did my senior year of high school in Iowa.
I started college in Kirksville, Missouri.
I finished college (just 5.5 years!) in Fort Collins, Colorado.
I have a Bachelors of Science. Never mind what I studied.
In 1997, I moved to Athens, Georgia.
At some point I met my SO and we moved to Phoenix, Arizona in 2000.
And in 2005, I was sick of the desert and we moved up to Oregon.

I kinda like it here, and I think we might stay here a little bit longer.

This post is all LaLooFah's fault. *jk grin* She talks about not learning to sew. Which, kind of randomly went ... in many different directions!!

Random is good!

yeah, monday and I need a vacation already!

That's the back of one of my Grandma's African Violets. Yesterday, I was admiring how the furry leaves caught the light.

Today's post is dedicated to my friend over at Vegan Wheekers... who has just bought a Bread Machine!!

I just love our bread machine, given to us by SO's mom, many many years ago. I eat sandwiches at work, and make a loaf of bread about every weekend.

rift's vegan, wheat sandwich bread!

2 cups wheat flour dumped into the bread container
1 1/4 cups soy milk (or water) nuked for 45 seconds, also dumped into the bread container
-- shake this up so the liquid and flour make balls

In a separate container, letting the previous "soak" for a few minutes:
3/4 cup white flour
1/4 cup wheat gluten
3/4 tsp salt
3 or 4 tbsp sugar
-- Dump this into the bread machine and add
2 tbsp oil (optional!)
1 1/2 tsp yeast

Set the machine for 1.5 pound loaf, with the "white bread" setting. I also set it for a "light" crust.

I hand wash my measuring cups and spoons, and when I'm done the machine has finished it's slow stir cycle and is on to it's fast stir cycle. I get my spatula out and make sure I've got a perfect ball of dough, adding warm water or flour if I don't.

Then I go do other things for 3.5 hours!

The "wheat bread" setting just adds a few minutes at the beginning of the cycle to let the wheat soak. It's not necessary, the way I do my first steps!

When the bread is done, it's important to take it out of the bread machine quickly. Our machine stays on and keeps the bread warm, but I've found it really drys the crust out. The bread will just slide right out of it's container, I just dump it on one of the stove burners (um, turned off, of course!).

After the loaf has cooled, I cut it in half and put each half into a ziplock. These go into the freezer. When I need bread, I pull one out, slice it up while it's still frozen (easier to cut straight!) and then put it in the fridge. I've never had my bread get moldy: most of the bread gets eaten pretty quickly, sometimes I leave the heels because they are small but even they last for weeks and weeks!

Oh. And the prep time is less than 15 minutes... and this includes clean-up time! Sometimes I can do it in 10!

Tag: vegan

Thanks to an email from Linda (*waves*), I got inspired to finish up a  Snuggle blanket that I had started last year:

I had been so stressed out this past week, and going to bed early every night... I really wanted to get something accomplished this weekend. And when Linda reminded me about the Snuggles Project, I also remembered I just had a few rows to finish up this blanket.

This one is 20x22inches, crocheted with three strings: two "Eco Cotton" white and one "Red Heart Super Saver tri-colour" called Ocean. The colour is messed up in the photo; the three colours are a pastel blue, pastel purple and aqua... it totally delighted me, but I only had one roll and I haven't seen it in the stores since. So, when I ran out of Ocean string, I finished off the blanket.

I will say that crocheting with three strings... sucks! I will never do that again. They were constantly getting tangled up and I threw my project across the room a couple times!

Now I'm wondering what my next crochet project will be. I have newsletters delivered to my email that have free patterns... but nothing has really caught my attention. Yet.

Linda is awesome, she loves rats and crocheting!
Linda at Ratpunzel :)

Tag: crochet