Ready for an Adventure

In three days we head out to Miami.  Miami!  But it is just a quick stop before we get on a giant ship and toddle around the Caribbean for 8 days.  I've never been on a cruise before and readily admit I have some pretty fierce (and probably outdated) stereotypes about the type of people that go on cruises.  But it is my dad's birthday and he wanted to go on a cruise, so there you go.  I am actually starting to get pretty excited.  Especially after we woke up yesterday and the ground was covered with snow.  And then became a hail storm when I went out to get a pedicure.  Not the best time to be wearing sandals!  

I am not a water person (wearing hard contacts makes it hard to swim.) I don't like tanning.  Yet I think I will find plenty to do on the gigantic Norwegian Pearl.  I'll have 2000+ other passengers to talk to!   It's funny how much time you have to prepare for a vacation that will be over before you know it.  We have an awesome house sitter so we don't need to worry about the house or the cats.  I bought new sandals and got a pedicure.  Now I just need to get some sunscreen and a sun hat and load up the Kindle and I will be good to go!  Sunny seas, here I come!

Have any of you ever gone on a cruise?  Any suggestions? 

Coffee at Brunch

I had some fiber arts ladies over for brunch on Saturday and quickly realized we were all drinking coffee out of the same black mugs.  We needed a way to recognize our coffees! 

Then I remembered these cute metal charms that are meant for wine glasses.  They were a house gift and we entertain with stemless glasses so I put them aside.  But now they are up on the shelf by the coffee cups for all our future brunches! 

Practice Makes Perfect

On 2 different recent occasions I was told by lecturing artists that when I make something I like, I should make 10 more of it or make one every day for a month to perfect my skills and see where I want to take it.

I think this is a great and simple philosophy.  All too often I fall into the ''what's next" trap and think I need to endlessly be trying new things.  I am stepping back and letting myself concentrate on lattice scarves.  (Of course I am also working on a ton of new dyeing techniques at the same time, but it will all balance out, no?) 

The first lattice scarf I made had square edges and was 4 squares wide.  This one is 2 squares wide but with fringe.  I was so excited about it I took a photo before I had ironed it and snipped off a few lumpy bits, but I really love how this one turned out.  I purposely made the square holes larger so I can pull the scarf into itself which allows for a multitude of ways to wear it. 

We are going on a cruise at the end of the month and I want to make a couple of spring scarves to take with me.  Maybe one lattice and one extra large nuno wrap for when it gets chilly.  Onward!

My Newest Food Obsession

Just simple pickled banana rings.  These are so delicious.  Sweeter and milder that jalapenos but still with a little kick.  I know there must be more glamorous brands out there but we flew through our first jar and I needed to get some more immediately.  I will probably start looking at gourmet stores and maybe this summer I will be able to make my own.

Our favorite way to eat them right now is to layer them with Gruyere and salami on dark caraway rye bread and then grill them.  That is making my mouth water right now just thinking of them.  I have added them to ground turkey soft tacos as well as on top of an Asian stir fry for crunch.  Next I am thinking to add them to some sort of dip for an appetizer.   I love having condiments in my life.

Surface Matters!

Last weekend I went to an awesome conference in Seattle: Surface Matters.  It was the first (of hopefully many, many) conference put together by the Washington chapter of the Surface Design Association. 

I was a little slow to jump on the surface design wagon because for a long time I assumed by much content I had seen that it was all quilters and weavers.  And then I realized that I should just join in all the fun because a) I will add more diversity by bringing in my own work and b) it's not all just quilters and weavers any more. Now I am fully immersed and am even starting my own SDA chapter for the south sound! 

Back to the conference.  It was amazing.  The first day was panel discussions and inspiring lectures.  My favorites were the felting panel (of course), surface designer/creator extraordinaire Jane Dunnewald, and Bellevue Arts Museum director Stefano Catalani. 

I recently purchased Jane's book Art Cloth and am really excited about all the techniques she shares.  She discussed using a flour paste as a resist at the conference and I went home and looked it up in her book and there it was.  I am in the middle of testing it out right now and will have finished photos in a day or two.  It is simple, but step heavy with everything having to dry 24 hours between steps.

Stefano Catalani is a charming and enthusiastic (and Italian!) man that loves fiber and craft and now I want to become a member of BAM purely based on his energy and vision for the museum.

The second day of the conference was an art opening for an exhibition of fiber works by SDA members and an open studio tour.  One of the stops was at Earthues, a natural dye company in the Seattle neighborhood of Ballard.  I thought we were just going to be seeing a demo but she actually gave all of us that showed up a silk scarf and let us dye it with natural Indigo!  I don't know much about dyeing and natural dyes even less and this was fascinating.  She has to get the PH balance just right in the bath and the dye looks green.   Your fabric only turns blue once it is exposed to oxidization.  So you pull it out of the vat and start unfolding it and playing with it and it turns blue right before your eyes!  I took it home and then laid it out for another 24 hours before rinsing it.  I don't think I am going to felt on it or do anything else to it, I just want to wear it!

Wet Felting a Lattice Scarf

I've been thinking a lot about lattice style scarves lately.  It's getting closer to spring and every few days we have been having a little nicer day and it makes me want to wear my spring clothes.  A lattice scarf is a good compromise because it keeps you warm but looks nice and light and airy. 

I used nearly 3 oz. of roving for this.  After I got the whole piece nice and wet with soapy water, I worked every little square by hand to firm up the edges and make sure they were nice and straight. 

Usually I like to wrap up my scarves in bubble wrap and start rolling them immediately but this was so delicate that I did a lot of the work gently and by hand and only rolled it in bubble wrap for a little bit in the middle of the process. 

I am going to keep playing with this style. I would like to add needle felting at the intersections but I plan on wearing it this weekend to the Surface Design Conference in Seattle so I won't have time yet. 

New Acquisitions

Since I bought my new Kindle last month, I was thinking I was going to be buying a whole bunch of e-books.  Guess not so much yet.  At the same time I signed up for Amazon Prime which for $79 a year lets you borrow e-books to read as well as receive 2 day shipping on other purchases.

When I went to buy 2 of these books electronically, it turned out that the hard copy prices were cheaper.  Add free 2-day shipping on top of that, and well, I now have 3 new real books.  It's all rather silly and I hope they (the publishers) figure out all this pricing to make sense. In the meantime, I get to enjoy the sizes, the fonts, the feel of the books.  (Small complaint about Prime: it actually took 3 days to get the books, not 2.  But that is still pretty quick.)

The Penguin Book of Victorian Women in Crime:  This is for my feminist book club.  I thought it was going to be an analysis of women in Victorian fiction but it actually is an anthology of short stories.  Which sounds good too.

String, Felt, Thread: The Hierarchy of Art and Craft in American Art: I buy a lot of how-to fiber art books.  I thought it was time to buy more of a history and this one covers the use of fibers in art and it's struggle to become more serious versus just being seen as craft.  This looks like it will be an excellent read.

Space Chronicles:  I am a bit of a math and science geek and Neil deGrasse Tyson is one of my all time favorite science geek heroes.  He is out there working his tail off to promote science awareness and the need for more money for NASA.  This book is a collection of his essays about space explorations and why NASA matters.  And he is very funny and easy to comprehend and avoids techie science speak.  I started this one first because I saw my husband eyeballing it and if he gets a hold of it then it might be a while before I get to steal it back.

I am feeling well rounded and smart today.  We'll see how long that lasts.

Paradise in a Cookie

Few things rate as high in my esteem as candied ginger.  Homemade candied ginger even better.  And homemade candied ginger in cookies, well, now that's worth writing about. 

First you need to make some candied ginger.  There are a lot of different ways to make candied ginger.  They way I do it, you end up both with ginger simple syrup and candied ginger. 

Take one large piece of ginger, 4 plus inches, and peel it.  I used to slave away with a small paring knife.  But then I read how the cooking whiz David Lebowitz peels his ginger and I wanted to send him a cash prize for innovation.  He scrapes it off with a spoon.  And it hardly wastes any ginger!  Genius!  Once you have peeled the ginger, slice it into thin, even thickness slices and combine with 1 cup water and 1 cup sugar.  Place over high heat, bring to a boil, then turn down and simmer for 1 hour to 1 1/2 hours.  You want the syrup to turn a nice deep golden color.  If it's not, simmer it some more.   Strain and reserve the syrup for gingered whiskey cocktails and as an addition to lemon ginger cookies.   Let the ginger cool and then finely chop.  You should end up with a heaping 1/4 cup.  Any more than that munch on yourself. 

Lemon Ginger Cookies

1/2 cup butter (1 stick), room temp.
1/2 cup brown sugar
1/4 cup molasses
2 cups all purpose flour
1 egg
2 Tablespoons ginger syrup
1/4 cup heaping chopped candied ginger
1 tsp powdered ginger
1/2 tsp cloves
1 tsp baking soda
zest of 2 lemons
1/2 cup turbinado sugar (or other large grain sugar)

 Heat oven to 350 F.

Cream butter and sugar with mixer.  Add 1/2 flour, mix well.  Then mix in egg and ginger syrup.  Add candied ginger, powdered ginger, cloves, baking soda, and lemon zest.  Mix well and then add in rest of flour.

Shape into 1" balls and roll on turbinado sugar.  I used a bright orange sugar to add extra color.   Space well apart on prepared baking sheet.  They spread out quite a bit.

Bake 10 minutes and then cool on wire rack.  

Zesty!  And I love how the chunky sugar makes them sparkle!

Prepping is Everything

One of the biggest complaints I hear from friends about cooking or, rather, not wanting to cook, is the time is takes to actually cook.  But I think they really are talking about prepping.  Cooking is usually the easy part.  It is the chopping into tiny pieces and assembling part that is the hardest part.

I was in the middle of making Yakisoba noodles with pork for lunch today when I suddenly noticed all my nice, organized piles of chopped ingredients.  (Note how crazy I am with the garlic.)

It makes me look a little OCD:

I realized two things. 

First, cooking is like making art.  You want all the colors and the flavors and the textures to balance and come out delicious and beautiful.  To be successful in either, you need to be detail oriented.

Second, I love the prep part of cooking.  I listen to the radio and zone out and focus on the task at hand.

Third, --ok, I didn't say there was a third, but there is.  I love yakisoba!