Who says I never get new clothes?

JoAnn Fabrics had a great sale last week, so I picked up some fabric to make a few skirts for work. I ended up having enough fabric left over to make a cute little shrug to go with the skirt. I'll be making one in gray striped suiting this weekend and possibly one in denim as well.

Total time spent: 3 hours.
Total money spent: $12.
Having a new outfit that actually fits: Priceless!

Care Package #11 - Oatmeal Cranberry "Cookies"

I know, I know: I'm supposed to be making "healthy" treats to send Brian. But cookies that have hardly any sugar but lots of oats and cranberries? That does not fall into my traditional definition of a cookie. In an effort to make this treat less cookie-like and more healthy-like, I actually baked half the batch in a pan to attempt Cranberry Bars. The result was good, but Brian still got the cookie form anyway and other friends benefited from the bars.

I used the recipe on the back of the bag of Craisins (which happens to be one of my favoritest snacks and is also super yummy in oatmeal). Here it is:

Oatmeal Cranberry White Chocolate Chunk Cookies

2/3 C softened butter

2/3 C brown sugar (see, hardly any sugar at all!)

2 large eggs

1.5 C old-fashioned oats

1.5 C flour

1 tsp baking soda

1/2 tsp salt

1 6-oz package Craisins

2/3 C white chocolate chips (FYI - "white" chocolate is not "really" chocolate, further removing this product from "cookie" status)

Preheat oven to 375. Using an electric mixer, beat butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Add eggs, mixing well. Combine oats, flour, baking soda and salt in a separate mixing bowl. Add the oats mixture to the butter mixture in several small additions, mixing well after each addition. Stir in Craisins and white chocolate chips. Drop by rounded teaspoonfuls onto an ungreased cookie sheet and bake for 10 - 12 minutes or until golden brown.

Clever, Frugal, and Inky

Earlier this month I came home from a quick overnight visit with Dad to find that my washing machine's agitator was not agitating. I realize the irony that a lack of agitation was, in turn, also a source of agitation. However, I didn't dwell on this because I seriously needed to do some laundry. So I popped the top off the agitator and saw that one of the cam dogs was broken, which prevented the other cam dogs from catching on the teeth inside the agitator. Did I mention that this was about 6:30 PM on a Sunday evening? Right. So there is no way that I'm going to call an appliance repair person, yet there is still laundry to be washed. So I poke around in my handy little toolbox and find two plastic screw anchors (circled in red below) that were just the right size to jam the un-broken cam dogs into position. This allowed me to do several loads of laundry and bought me some time to see how much a real repair job was going to cost.

Boy am I glad I did this! Ends up that a set of cam dogs only cost me $8 and I was able to switch them out myself! This saved me at least the $65 that a service call costs, and who knows how much they would have charged me for the infamous "parts and labor." All I need to do now is bolt the agitator back in place and I'm good to go!

On a totally separate subject, I'd like to share with you a little glimpse from my weekend. I haven't talked much about this up till now because, like stories I've heard about picking names for a child, everyone has an opinion and often share it without being asked. So, now that it is over and done, I'm happy to bring the topic up for discussion! I have been debating for a long, long time now about getting some more tattoo work done. When I say "a long, long time" I mean literally years. I got my first tattoo back in 2001 and have wanted more since then. But I have been actively considering my next tattoo for at least three years. I thought about getting one in 2009, but wasn't sure I was in quite the right frame of mind. For me, it's not just the piece or where it is on my body, but it is also a reminder of where I am emotional and mentally. After a bit more thought, and having made the "mistake" of flipping through a few tattoo mags earlier this month, I realized that I really was ready to take that leap. I brought Joy with me to the Island Tattoo Company in South Carolina (since Georgia doesn't license/regulate their tattoo shops). The folks there were really nice, friendly and helpful. Gavan was great in helping me brainstorm on what I was going to get, and Charles was super cool to chat with and did an amazing job!

I feel like I'm carrying around a secret: people see me at work or walking Harley in the park and they have no idea that I have this beautiful piece of art melding with my skin. I don't know when the novelty will wear off, but right now I'm totally basking in the joy of my new tattoo. I love that this is now a permanent piece of who I am. The trouble now will be not going back for more. Well, maybe just a little touch-up on the old tat...

Care Package #10: Going Healthy (and another craft project!)

I've been having a blast making all kinds of yummy treats to send Brian: cookies, brownies, candy. Although I've enjoyed it, there are two downsides: 1. I either have to give away any extras or risking gorging on them myself and 2. Brian has to either give away any excess or risk gorging on them himself! I guess you can have too much of a good thing...

So, in the interest of keeping us both from gorging on sweets, I have decided to honor Brian's request to send healthier goodies and reserve the sweets and treats for holidays. This isn't much of a concession for me because I'd really rather make healthy food.

For his first healthy package, I whipped up a new batch of granola, then added in some dried fruit and a few chocolate chips to make a delicious trail mix. Because even dried fruit can cause nuts and granola to get soft, I sent each ingredient in its own little baggie, leaving Brian the fun of mixing it all together according to his tastes.

Low-Fat Homemade Granola

4 Cups Old Fashioned Rolled Oats (don't skimp and go with Quick Oats)
1 Cup of as many of the following as you would like: raw sunflower seeds, pumpkin seeds, crushed walnuts, pecans, almonds, sweetened coconut, etc.
1 Cup Wheat Germ
1/2 Cup Flax Seeds
Sprinkle with Cinnamon according to your tastes
1/3 Cup Canola Oil
1/3 Cup Honey (or substitute Molasses or Maple Syrup)
1/3 Cup water

Pre-heat oven to 350. Add all the dry ingredients in one big bowl. In a jar with a tight lid, combine the oil, honey and water and shake until well mixed (if you use more than 3 choices of nuts/seeds, increase the oil and water to half a cup each). Slowly pour the liquid over the oats while stirring to make sure everything is well coated. Spread the mix out on a large, rimmed baking sheet and bake until dry (I stir it ever 20 minutes and it usually takes at least 45 minutes to bake. I heard you can make granola in a crock pot and will let you know how it works when I try it!).

I added raisins, dried cranberries, dried apricots (chopped up, since they're kinda big), toasted whole almonds, and a handful of chocolate chips to turn the granola into trail mix.

On a totally different subject, I finally made some curtains for my bedroom. I have been wanting to try out this idea since I saw it in a magazine years ago. I used small kitchen hooks, like you would hang a coffee cup from, to hang the curtains in my room. I am of the mind that this project did not cost me a penny, since I have had all the different pieces for at least 2 years.

I first attached the grosgrain ribbon with Stitch Witchery (a miracle invention!), then sewed the top and bottom edges of the ribbon, just to be thorough. I measured out the spacing for the hooks (I am slowly learning that the "measure before you cut/hammer/sew/etc" really does help prevent frustration) to make sure they were even, then used my grommet tool to put the eyelet through the ribbon.

I used some very, very old single-fold bias tape to secure the edges of the fabric. Since it is a sheer material, this was really important to keep it from fraying and to give the curtain a little bit of body. I am pretty sure that this bias tape came from the craft-stash of my great-grandmother, Ida. I have only ever worked with double-fold bias tape...and now I know why. Single-fold has its uses, I'm sure, but I certainly prefer the double-fold.

The butterfly fabric was a remnant that I picked up when I was in college and took a day-trip to Asheville, NC with my professor. I loved it enough to buy it, but never could decide what to do with it, especially since I rarely work with sheers. Having open, light-filled spaces is really important to me, so these curtains provide just enough coverage while still letting the sunlight flow in to my room.

I am SO HAPPY with the finished product! This is another case of it looking exactly how I imagined/hoped it would! Oh, and the whole project was started and finished in one day. Can't beat that!

Two more craft projects done!

I really enjoyed making a baby quilt using these rounded pieces. It was a new process for me, having only ever done straight seam quilts before. I liked it so much, that I made another! I even used some of the Jinny Beyer fabric from Mom's stash (she seemed to have bought a lot of it but never used it...). I'm really happy with the finished top, and I backed it with soft, purple/green/brown flannel plaid. Ahhhh, snuggly warmth!

I started this little piggy The Week of No Heat (as it has come to be known). I love how quick and easy it was to make, but didn't like that the pattern has you knitting in rows instead of knitting in the round (in an effort to break the bad habit of "winging it" on new patterns, I actually followed all the steps exactly). It took much longer than I would have liked to seam all the flat pieces. I can't tell if the author just doesn't do in-the-round knitting, or if she thought that knitting in rows would be easier for beginners. Either way, I think I'll be adapting the patterns to knitting in the round from here on out.

You can't see it very well from this picture, but this little piggy even has a curly little piggy tail! It's so darn cute I almost want to keep it for myself...

Still working on the elephants...may have them done by tomorrow though!

Two New Challenges

It is a well known fact that I have entirely too much free time. I am always just sitting around wondering "Hmmmm, what should I do? I'm so bored! There must be something I can do to keep busy..."

It's also a well know fact that I am a sarcastic smart-ass...

So, in the interest of staying ever-more busy, I have given myself two new challenges!

The first has to do with my kitchen pantry. I used to tease my Mom about having a soup kitchen's worth of food in her house. Over the holidays I opened my cupboards and, lo and behold, I found a soup kitchen! Not really, but considering the fact that I live alone and don't really entertain often, I seemed to have an inordinately large quantity of food.

So my first challenge is: Use up all the staples in my cupboard before buying anything new. There will still be some shopping required, for perishables and such. But I will attempt not to buy a single non-perishable item until I have used up all that I stored (including the 9 cans of pumpkin that I bought because I heard there a was shortage due to bad weather. Really, who needs 9 cans of pumpkin?).



To reward myself for sticking to a Pilates schedule (6 days a week since October, with just a few days missed when I was sick) I finally bought myself a punching bag!!! I've been wanting one since I lived in CT, but it just didn't seem practical to have a punching bag in a third floor apartment (nor very friendly towards downstairs neighbors).

My second challenge is going to be a lot more fun than the first: Use my punching bag for a minimum of 30 minutes at least twice a week. I signed up for a 5K in February and hopefully this will help build my endurance. Not only will this increase my cardio for the week, but I'm pretty sure it's going to reduce my stress levels, too. There's nothing quite like hitting and kicking something until your arms twitch and your legs quiver to give you that peaceful, relaxed feeling...
I'll keep you posted on the status of both challenges. And if you have any good recipes for canned pumpkin or pearled barley, please feel free to pass those along...

A little birdie told me...

I can't believe I forgot to take pictures of this little cutie! This was my first project from my new favorite knitting book, Knitted Toy Tales! Her shaping is not quite as neat as that in Amigurumi Knits, but there are pros and cons to each book. These have more of a "toy" feel whereas Amigurumi Knits look a bit more realistic (or as real as a knitted creature can look, such as this octopus or ant).

What I like most about this book, and a big deciding factor in why I picked this over the several other knitted toys books I was scoping out, is that these knitted patterns have small bits of fabric worked into them! The underside of this birdie's wings are a 1930's reprint fabric from Mom's stash. I have two other works in progress and will hopefully have more photos next week!

Care Package #9: Best EVER Cookies!

When I was young, Mom used to make what I thought was the best chocolate chip cookies. I remember being a very small child and helping her stir the chocolate and peanut butter chips into the batter. The best part, however, was scooping the batter onto the cookie sheets, mainly because I always ended up eating a good portion of the batter! I have some friends who were never allowed to eat cookie dough (raw eggs and such) but we always nibbled while baking and I managed to survive.



It wasn't until I went off to college that I started to experiment with the recipe. Mom's cookies always came out very crunchy. They were perfect for dipping in milk or even hot tea on a cold day, but I really liked cakey cookies that could be eaten without having to dip. By adjusting the amount of flour, baking time, type of cookie sheet, chilling the dough before baking, and even replacing Crisco with butter, I was able to bake a super-yummy cookie that was soft and chewy, but could still be dunked if desired. I also discovered that the dough freezes well, which allows me to make a big batch of dough, but spread out the baking over a few weeks. There's nothing like coming home and tossing a few frozen dough balls into the toaster oven and enjoying warm cookies on a cold night! This batch for Brian came out PERFECT and I had to vacuum seal them as soon as they cooled to keep from eating them all up myself!

Mom's Best Chocolate & Peanut Butter Chip Cookies

Ingredients
1 1/3 C softened butter
1 C brown sugar
1 C white sugar
2 eggs
1 tsp vanilla
1 tsp baking soda
3 – 3 ½ C flour
1 C semi-sweet chocolate chips
1 C peanut butter chips

With a hand mixer, blend together softened butter with sugars. Add eggs one at a time, mixing well after each. Add vanilla and baking soda, mix again. Add one cup of flour at a time and stir well with a wooden spoon until dough is slightly tacky and holds together well. Stir in chips and refrigerate for 2 hours.

Pre-heat over to 350°. Scoop teaspoon-sized balls of dough onto a cookie sheet, leaving at least one inch between each scoop. Bake for 8 – 10 minutes or until lightly browned. Remove from oven and let cool for 2 minutes before transferring to a wire rack to cool completely. If you have good will power, the cookies will keep in an air tight container for about 10 days. If you want to freeze some of the dough, slightly flatten the teaspoon-sized ball of dough before freezing and bake for a wee-little bit longer.

What did you do on your Christmas vacation?

I finally took a few days off from work over the holidays. Work was slow anyway, and I didn't have any classes scheduled, so it seemed like a good time to catch up on some fun!

Amanda and I grabbed a slice of pizza at Vinnie Van Go-Go's then wandered around Broughton Street checking out all the holiday displays. This over sized Nutcracker freaked me out about 3 seconds after this picture was taken: as I turned to walk away it's arm and mouth started moving!

I have been having a great time knitting the fun toys from my new favorite book, Knitted Toy Tales. This owl was really easy to make, and I'm in the middle of finishing an elephant and piggy!

If you didn't already know, I have a pretty firm policy on gifts: make it myself or forget about it. (There are, of course, a few exceptions. But for the most part if you get a gift from me it will be something I made with my own two hands.)

For Dad's Christmas gift, I made him a pair of purple, flannel pajamas. Flannel is one of my favorite fabrics and I've made PJ bottoms before on many occasions. This was my first attempt at the complete set and I have to say I'm pretty happy with it!

Joy's present was a bit belated. By "belated" I mean that I actually made it back in 2003 and just got around to framing and giving it to her! I drew this picture of her cat, Bailey A.K.A. Meemers, from a photo I took when I had been living on her couch after college. I re-discovered it in the packing and moving process of last March and decided to finally frame it up and pass it along.

Harley was happy with her new bed (this is one of those "handmade gift exceptions" because the foam material I wanted to use to make her a bed cost $60 and this ready-made bed only cost $19!).

Dad and I attended a Compline service at the Christ Church downtown. I can see why some people may not enjoy a "passive" service where the congregation merely listens. But for me, it is comforting to partake in a service yet not recite passages and phrases which I do not wholly believe.

And what are the holidays if not a time for comfort food? I made one of my favorite dishes: Lentil Shepherd's Pie for dinner and savored the leftovers for many days.

I rounded out my holiday events with a quick walk on the beach New Year's Day. It was a bit on the chilly side (for Georgia) and storm clouds were threatening, so I didn't linger long. But I did enjoy the fresh air, beautiful shells and adorable little sand pipers that were flitting about.

Care Package #8: Don't sniff the box!

I picked up a bag of mini-Reese Peanut Butter Cups a few weeks ago with the intention of eventually making Peanut Butter Cup Brownies. Then I made a fatal mistake: I opened the bag to use one Peanut Butter Cup as a prop to pose my newly finished knitted Ant.

Sure, it looks really cute and I'm happy with the way the finished Ant came together (I'm also happy to finally be done with it!). But after the Ant photo shoot, I had to eat the Peanut Butter Cup. I mean, it was already unwrapped, so I couldn't put it back. And throwing it away was just out of the question. And one little Peanut Butter Cup all by itself is not such a big deal. But there was also the issue of the bag. The bag full of dozens of other little Peanut Butter Cups sitting on top of my cabinet taunting me. After nibbling all weekend I finally decided that I had to make the brownies ASAP, before all the Peanut Butter Cups were gone!

I may come back later and post the recipe, but I wasn't very happy with it. Don't get me wrong, the brownies were perfectly fine, but I didn't think they were great. They certainly didn't come close to the Peanut Butter Swirl Brownies. They did, however, smell wonderful. In fact, even after I vacuum-sealed the brownies and taped the box to the point it would take a blowtorch to open it, you could still smell the chocolaty goodness.

Um, Brrrr

I moved to Georgia just a little less than a year ago. The first few weeks I was here it was kinda chilly. According to folks in Savannah, it was freezing. But, having just come from a location that actually was freezing, I sorta enjoyed the "mild" winter temperatures. I'm also not the sort of person that generally complains about the weather, it being one of those things over which I have no control (at least not yet, anyway...).

So the fact that Savannah has been getting down into the teens and low 20s during the night and barely topping out at 50 during the day is not really upsetting to me. What is upsetting, however, is that my heat system decided that this was the week it would up and die on me! I guess it just had enough and couldn't keep fighting the good fight to keep me warm and toasty (and by "warm and toasty" I mean 62 degrees) anymore. My property manager brought over a couple of space heaters...which do absolutely nothing in rooms with 13 foot ceilings. So Saturday night and most of Sunday Harley and I camped out in my bedroom trying to fend off hypothermia.

When I wandered out to use the bathroom and noticed that the rest of my house was a mere 40 degrees I decided that it was no longer fun to tough it out: I sent Harley to spend the week with Dad and have been bunking up at a friend's house for the week.

As of this morning I am waiting for a compressor to arrive. Hopefully it will be installed and charged up tomorrow and I can return to life as I know it. It has been kinda relaxing to stay at Amanda's, but I am a home-body that misses my own home! I also miss my morning walks around Forsyth and my puppy and my own bed and not having to live out of a suitcase and having a choice of what to wear each morning.

Interestingly, this has actually been a very positive learning experience for me. When I thanked Amanda for offering to let me stay, she replied that she was just excited to be able to do something for me. Now, I love doing things for others; I get a lot of pleasure out of making gifts, or helping out, or any other type of giving/doing. But for some reason, maybe owing to my fierce sense of independence, I rarely allow others the opportunity to "do" for me, thus denying them the pleasure that I so greatly enjoy. Clearly this is something that I need to work on, especially since I have such wonderfully caring and giving friends. I think this is what Steven Covey means by "inter-dependence" being more powerful than independence...

Care Package #7: New Year's

I thought long and hard about what to send in the New Year's care package. I don't like buying junky stuff, so I didn't want to send the usual noise makers and confetti. I thought about some traditional New Year good-luck foods, like Black Eyed Peas, but didn't think Brian would have a way to cook them. Then I thought about one of the biggest parts of New Year's Eve: the kiss at midnight! Since I couldn't be there for a kiss at midnight, I figured I could send him a bunch of kisses... Hershey Kisses, that is.


I tried a new Peanut Butter Cookie recipe for the base of these Hershey Kiss cookies. Seemed to taste the same as my old recipe, so nothing really exciting there.

Just for fun I decided to try a completely new cookie.

You can find the Raspberry Pinwheel recipe here. They are pretty yummy, but I need to work on the rolling process: most of the jam squeezed out while I was rolling it up. Oh, and Harley helped herself to two sticks of butter and a package of cream cheese that were softening on the counter. A quick trip to the vet for X-rays showed that the packaging wouldn't cause any blockage problems and also revealed that she had been shot twice with a BB gun! Seems my girl had a tough life before I found her.

I was very surprised and more than a little annoyed to find out that the Army does not issue pillows to the soldiers. Brian had been sleeping on an inflatable camping pillow until he got a flat, stiff pillow from the PX. So I picked up a soft, fluffy pillow from TJ Maxx and sent it over in a large vacuum bag, along with a broken-in pillowcase. I was afraid that shipping it in a vacuum bag might kill the fluffiness, but Brian said it sprang right back to life as soon as he opened it.