My Favorite Winter Hobby: Neglecting the Yard

I am a fair weather gardener. I LOVE to be outside digging and planting and weeding and watering and fussing when it is over 60 degrees. Rainy and cold? Forget about it. And forget about trying to get my husband out in the yard on a regular basis unless it is over 70.

So in the winter I tend to be an "ignore it and it will go away" type of gardener.

We used to have planter boxes for the vegetable garden and after about 5 years they rotted and fell apart and then the last 2 years I decided to do mounds instead of boxes but I didn't really give myself enough space to work in the rows and it ended up a bit of a disaster. When I made the mounded beds I used a mulch-like soil that was too "hot" for a lot of my veggies and didn't drain so well. Also, we have a cat that absolutely thinks the best thing in the world is to poop in my garden. Hence the deer fencing-- I do not want to eat kitty poop covered veggies. It is a problem spot to say the least.

I am determined to solve all of these problems this year. First, I have to weed everything. Next, I am going to build some new garden beds and fill it with some nice potting soil. Finally, I am going to make some fencing that is easy to take down in sections depending on which garden bed I am working on. Hopefully that will fix the cat problem.

The ornamental areas weren't looking as bad as the veggie area but it turned out that most of the English Lavender didn't make it through our extra cold winter this year.

It is starting to look pretty good in the ornamental section but pretty empty since I had to tear out 4 lavenders.

Here is the bed ready for its new boxes. That twig in the center is our fig tree. I am also worried that it didn't survive. There are buds on it but they look dead to me so I am just going to wait and see what happens with the poor thing and try again if it is dead.
Okay, I was planning on making the planters today but unlike the sunny day we had yesterday, it is raining today and I would rather stay in and felt!

Learning From My Mistakes

My first big nuno scarf was too thick so on this second one I tried to use less wool.

It worked pretty well. The black part of the scarf is mostly silk with just a little gray and black felted to it and is nice and comfortable around the neck. The red is a little too thin on the edges. It's okay structurally, but just not the look I was going for.

I really love playing with the colors and experimenting with design.

I am getting closer to the ruffles that I desire.

I am also experimenting with "pre-felts". These are bits of color that you felt a little and then rinse them and dry them and cut them out and you can then add them on top of other felting or silks and get nice crisp edges.

Well, you are supposed to get nice crisp edges. I have been having a little trouble with figuring out how far to take the pre-felts. Sometimes I don't work the felt enough and the pre-felts fall apart. Other times I nearly felt them and then they won't felt to anything! I envision a lovely white silk scarf with cascading flowers and petals.
If it was easy, it wouldn't be worth doing, right?

Today I am going to try making a hand bag with a slug on it!

Next week on Cake Wrecks

My philosophy in life tends to be try as hard as you can and if sometimes it doesn't work out, so be it. Easier words to say than live by.

I am usually pretty smug about my baking skills but then I try something simple and old hat like a Pineapple Upside Down cake and ruin the whole thing.

Twice.

That's right. I screwed the first one up and I made a second one and screwed that one up too. The upside down part stuck to the pan. I have made this recipe plenty of times before and usually it comes out pretty and caramelized and everyone is impressed.

These photos are from the first cake. I threw it all away. The second one came out of the pan okay but it wasn't caramelized at all and was rather gooey. We kept that one to eat at home but I refused to take it to the party we were going to. Instead, I went to Met Market and bought Tiramisu.
Maybe this is just a sign that we have been eating too much cake in this house and it is time to cool it!

Slugs from Outer Space!

Sorry, not the best photo here but I am excited about my new Slugs. I have these two finished and two more in progress and will be dropping them off with some of my Minions felt sculptures at Tasty in Seattle this weekend.

I just want to cuddle with them. I suddenly have a vision of them piled up in the back of my car; a new sort of creepy stuffed animal!

Nuno Felting a Large Scarf

I finally got my hands on some black silk chiffon so that I could experiment felting a large nuno scarf. A nuno scarf is made by felting (or laminating) wool to silk. This makes the wool strong, but lightweight.

Here I have started to lay out the front part of the design but what you are seeing is the back part of the front. Did that make sense? I have to create it from front to back so I laid down the poppies and details first and then the periwinkle is the background. Next I covered it with the silk.

Then I create the design of the back of the scarf so the whole thing is one piece, like a wool and silk sandwich.

Here it is rolled up during the felting/rolling process. The table is covered in plastic but it still made a huge mess. Also, rolling the scarf 600 times plus is very physical.

Here it is at the throwing stage.

And here it is pretty close to done. I learned a few things on this. 1) I used too much wool and it shrunk a lot so now it is too thick for a nice spring scarf like I was planning and 2) because it shrunk so much it does not have much drape to it.
Next scarf I will use less wool on the back so that it will shrink less and more of the silk will shine through! Other than that, I love how the poppies and spirals turned out.

37 Things: Throw a Fundraiser

When I got the idea to put throw a fundraiser on my list of 37 Things I Want to do Before I Turn 38, I had an image of an art show at a gallery with maybe wine and snacks, but not much more than that. Definitely not at my house. And I definitely did not envision myself cooking for 8 hours.

Well, of course things change. When the earthquake and tsunami struck Japan last month, like most people, I was shocked and saddened. And then I bolted into action. Why not have a fundraiser where I make a fancy brunch for people and they come and donate money and we'd have a silent auction and a raffle and raise money for the Japanese Red Cross? Bingo! It also worked out nicely to have the party on my husband's birthday so that we could ask for donations instead of gifts.

And so yesterday we had a great party and really, really generous donors. We raised over $2000 and I have a friend traveling to Japan in a couple of weeks that can have the money matched by an organization in Tokyo. Yay! $4000! Not too bad for 2 weeks of planning time.

Unfortunately, I did not get a lot of photos of the planning and none during the event itself. There was too much going on with silent auction tables closing and raffles to give away and food to get out of the oven and good, good friends to talk to. Next time I will recruit someone to document for me.

But here's a quick peek: A good chunk of the food purchased for the event. Feeding 21 people takes a lot of groceries! I was smart and ended up with all the booze (sparkling wine for Mimosas and vodka for Bloody Marys) donated. Also, having a brunch means people will drink less so it is easier to plan ahead.

This shot is less than 3 hours before the party started! I planned the food so that over half of it could either be prepared or prepped the night before so it was mostly assembling and cooking off in the morning.

I tried Cinnamon Pull Apart Bread for the first time and it was a big hit. The recipe was a little funky and I was afraid it wouldn't turn out, but with a little added kneading and mixing, it came out great. This is right before the second rising.

My other go to favorite for brunches is Pecan Nut Rolls. These cinnamon rolls are super easy to prepare; they just seem complicated because letting the dough rise does take some planning. I made all the doughs the night before and put them in the fridge after the first rise so it was pretty easy to get going the next morning.

Here's getting the rolls ready for the second rise. That's melted butter, brown sugar, and corn syrup with chopped pecans that makes the yummy glaze. When you take them out of the oven you invert them directly onto a plate and they look fabulous.

Ribs. You can never go wrong with ribs. The only thing hard about slow cooking ribs is getting up early enough to brown the ribs and get them into the crock pot! Not shown was the Waldorf salad, the bacon wrapped dates, the mushroom and spinach puff pastry pinwheels, the cream cheese artichoke dip, and the chocolate sheet cake. My friend Doug helped me out by bringing a nice big green salad at last minute too; I was worried there wouldn't be enough food!

A few of the raffle items. The raffle was so successful, I had to keep adding more items! Those cool bottle stoppers were made by my friend Joel. Gorgeous. I was sad to see them go.
Ah, cleaning. We are pretty good at getting the dishwasher going right at the end of the party so clean up was a snap.

In the evening after everyone was long gone, we celebrated by going out to our favorite wine bar and toasting to Trevor's birthday and our fundraiser. I am starting to think that every birthday of his and mine we should have a fundraiser of some sort. We all have so much, really. It is easy to forget how easy we have it most of the time (even if I do feel broke with all our home repairs!)

Now I feel like taking a nap.

Wet Felting: The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly

This is my favorite Minion so far. I called him "Black Hearted Minion." (OK, not very creative, what can I say?) The heart I made in the wet felting stage and had to tweak just a tiny bit of it with needle felting when I was finishing him up.

On a less successful note, I have been trying to make flowers. I keep seeing these lovely wet felted multi-petal Dahlia brooches everywhere but am having a hard time recreating them. These to me look a little sad. But hopefully practice will make perfect!

I am a little happier with these flowers I felted onto a long strip of silk. These I learned how to create from a tutorial I purchased on ETSY. I wore them wrapped around my neck as a necklace and was very happy with the look. (Though a friend generously pointed out to me I will never make enough money to cover my time. Geez, thanks for the input!)
More flower experimenting to come!

Post Workout Cast Iron Skillet Frittata

I am always trying to come up with new high protein meals for after our morning workouts. We are both training for the Tacoma Half Marathon in May and lately have been upping the intensity and length of our workouts. As a consequence, we come home craving fat and protein and carbs. If I don't have something planned, we will eat junk food.

Today I made Frittata. I like to cook with eggs quite a bit. Usually I am poaching them on sauteed kale. Today I decided we needed something heartier but still wanted to use kale.

Onion, Kale, and Cheddar Frittata

3-4 Tablespoons olive oil
1 large red or white onion, halved and sliced into slivers then halved again
1/2 large bunch kale, sliced thin
salt
4 cloves garlic, minced
6 eggs
3/4 cup sharp cheddar
2 Tablespoons pine nuts (optional)

Start by heating up your skillet to medium with a little olive oil in it. Add red onions and cook, stirring occasionally for about 5 minutes.

While the onions are cooking, chop up some kale. Yum. Any type of kale.

Add to skillet along with a little more oil and a smattering of salt.

Stir and then cover. (Like my improvising on the lid? Gotta work with what you have.) It looks like a lot at first but then it cooks down. Cook, covered, for about 8 minutes, or until kale is really wilted.

While that is cooking, blend eggs with fork in large bowl. Add cheddar and mix again.

After kale is pretty well cooked, remove cover, add garlic, and cook for about 30 seconds. You don't want to burn that garlic.

Add kale and onion mix to bowl of eggs and cheddar and blend well. Wipe out cast iron skillet and lightly coat with 1 or 2 Tablespoons of oil. Pour egg mix into skillet, keeping it over medium heat. Not high heat, or the bottom of your frittata will be burnt! Cover again, this time with a sheet pan. You want it to cook just enough for the top to set, but it will still be wet looking.

While frittata is cooking on stove, preheat your broiler. Check after 5 minutes, but it could take up to 10 to start to set.

Here it is just set but still wet looking. Put under the broiler for 1-2 minutes to brown the top. I added a couple of Tablespoons of pine nuts just before putting it under the broiler.

It's a little harder to tell in this photo, but the frittata is nicely browned and set in the middle. You don't want to over cook it, however. Overcooked eggs taste rubbery.
With only 6 eggs, we managed to split the entire yummy goodness for lunch.

Note: I used a 12" cast iron skillet and the frittata came out extra thin. A 10" might be better or next time I will double my recipe and cook it a little longer and then have leftovers for lunch the next day.

New friends: Minions!

So I've started calling these little guys Minions. I like this photo; it looks like are doing the side-eye off camera to some other Minion.

And I just made my first flowers today. I screwed up and made the connector too short. I wanted to be able to wrap it around my neck like a scarf. Oh well, guess I'll just have to make some more! Also, I think I will add some needle felting to them too. They are still wet right now so that will have to happen tomorrow.

So on another totally different note, we are loving our new heat pump. It takes some getting used to having it run all of the time versus the oil furnace you try to turn off all the time. But we just found out today that we probably need a whole new roof on our house, not just a little patch like we were hoping. Sheesh. At least we will be warm and dry!