Thursday, April 26, 2012

One In Every Color- Hexy Trekkies


Hexies (hexagonal knit pieces knit in the round stuffed with fiberfill) have taken over.




At first I wasn't sold but now that I have knit socks and am not as afraid of tiny yarn AND now that I have tiny yarn scraps AND now that Tanya has let me arrange her one in every color hexies for fun, I am HOOKED! (or needled since this is knitting and not crochet! Bad joke...I know.)



The Beekeepers Quilt designed by Tiny Owl Knits (pictured below) seemed to set off the trend.



at first I resisted. But similarly to the situation with Pinterest. I appear to be giving in.



These Trekish hexies may have been what did me in. I've recently become veeeery interested in the show and have started "The Next Generation" series to begin my journey into the Treky world.



Data is my favorite. I'm starting to notice a pattern in my favorite characters. Data, Sheldon, Bones, Luna Lovegood...all are characters who have trouble comprehending social norms. And I love them.

Sunday, April 22, 2012

It All Started With a Big Bang

The whole time I've been knitting I've sworn I wouldn't make socks until they could both be finished at the same time and toe up so I wouldn't run out of yarn on the toes and be in an awful predicament.  When I spotted the book "Toe-Up 2-at-a-Time Socks by Melissa Morgan-Oakes I figured it was now or never.
So began....
 I started working on these socks about the same time I was introduced to the Big Bang Theory and did the majority of the work on them while watching the show. The yarn is Knit Picks Stroll, Hand Painted and the colorway is called Cartoons. Also appropriate for these Big Bang Socks, as the characters in the show have a particular appreciation for cartoons and comics.
The irony in this big knitting achievement is that I finished these socks on a record high temperature day for April in Fresno. 92 degrees. I'm meeeeeelting! Whether hand knit socks are actually worth it or not will have to wait to be determined until it cools off a bit.

Dairy Free Version of Madras Lentils

I've discovered these lentils at Costco. There pretty healthy and tasty!



The kicker for Luke and me is that they have dairy in them. Sooo I set out to try to make some from scratch without dairy. It turned out pretty tasty! The other catch is that I didn't write down what I did as I did it so I'll do my best to report the ingredients.
1 bag of dry lentils
1 handful of dry red beans
1 handful pinto beans
1 can diced tomatoes
1 can tomato sauce
1 cup of frozen chopped onion, jalepeno, 2 cloves of garlic and tomato (I made these big veggie ice cubes over summer for dropping in the crock pot)
1 tablespoon ish cumin
1 tablespoon ish chili powder
2 tablespoons taco seasoning (add more to taste)

Soak lentils and beans for 24 hrs before.
Rinse beans and lentils and combine with other ingredients in the crock pot.
Cook on high for 12 hrs.
At some point in that time take out 1 1/2 cups of cooked beans and either with an emersion blender or food processor purée them. Return the puréed mixture to the crock pot.
Enjoy with shredded chicken, ground turkey, ground beef or plain. Works well as a main dish or even as an accessory for tacos.
- Posted using BlogPress my iPhone

Spring Break 2012

Cupcakes. Twice. The cupcake truck now has a shop down town. It's fabulous because the comfy seating makes it a nice place to enjoy the cupcake as well!



Saturday1:



French toast (blue) maple bacon (purple) zippy lemon (red). French Toast was my personal favorite for the day.



The Saturday before Easter was earl grey and banana.
The Easter bunny stopped by.



...and even his eggs.












Until she broke something and spent 3 hours cleaning up the mess. Wooops.
The masters was on. I had favorites. None of them were Tiger.



Also I worked on homework. A lot. I had a major project due right after spring break and it consumed more time than I would have liked.
The greatest thing about this trip was that it was the last one. I'll be done with school in May and headed back to live with my Luke again! What a relief that will be!



I miss that guy.
- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Sunday, April 8, 2012

Eggs-perimentation

Thanks to the lovely Pinterest I got lots of ideas for dying Easter eggs! Here's the thing I've learned in education. Never plan to do anything with others, especially young others, that you haven't tried and had success with at least once.
And so began my eggsperimentation.
Kool-Aid, is vinegar really not necessary? It was a bonafide science experiment. 2 colors, 4 containers. One of each color with vinegar.



The eggs on the right had vinegar, left none. Vinegar deemed not necessary. This adventure was totally worth taking to an egg party with kids. Especially since I discovered this fun rubber-band relief dying method. The results are super dramatic. I love it.



I found that the flat broccoli asparagus style rubberbands work best for wrapping more than once. For skinny stripes use rubber-bands the size of the length of egg you want to put it around. Too small will roll off and two big will not make a tight enough seal.
For the main event we used lots of colors:



Green Koolaid was nowhere to be found in CO Springs. For the record strawberry and cherry both come out red. Grape is a bit brown and orange is easily "contaminated." I rather like the look!



My second cousin once removed (the one who made jello bunnies!



Easter is a time for jello folks!) also got an egg marbling technique kit. I confess it baffled me. I took it as a challenge to attempt the technique at home with some Wilton's dye. I dyed my eggs first.



Then I put a bit of oil in shallow dye just like Martha S. said.
These were the results that were closest:



I found out after the fact it was because there were little pieces of condensed pink dye in the bottom of the bowl. Sigh. My other gripe with this method is that oil gets everywhere! Not so much a fan. I'm firing this technique. So I washed all my eggs off and went a different route.



Or at least a preferred route with dramatic effects! Luke even said I achieved the golf shirt effect I'd been after. Next year I'm getting one of those wax stylus things and going all Reshenka on those eggs.
- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone