hurry up and craft

I haven't got anything against Star Trek, I swear. But for all my interest in comics, sci-fi, and all things fantasy, the idea of a Voyager marathon today isn't what I'm feeling. When T, who never gets sick and yet is sick, asked if we could get these episodes out of the way so he could return the discs to his friend, I immediately thought, I need to craft. So, yeah, as long as you're ok with me running around getting things done...
I had a zombie dream last night, where I was trying to cure the "zombie virus" with essential oils (I made a small amount of eucalyptus rub for T the other night for congestion, maybe that's why?), and I've also been on a craft-using-only-what-I-have-kick*. Oh, and I've been reading The Complete book of Incense, Oils & Brews by Scott Cunningham. Put all this together and you get smelly soap balls.

Green eucalyptus and lavender balls, for sick people.

an intersesting mix of sandalwood and violet leftovers, and 2 different types of purples.

Reddish purple sandalwood celtic heart soap in mold

Violet essential oil scented. they were all made into balls, but this pic was supposed to show how cool they looked as chunks, almost crystal like.

Detail of sandalwood celtic heart.

The goods, in nothing fancy packaging.

I used Melt and pour soap and supplies from wholesale supplies plus (except the essential oils, which came from Moonshadow magic shoppe), with Crafters Choice coloring in forest green, candy apple red and something something blue. (A wave of exhaustion just washed over me. too tired to get up and look at the bottles.)
*an explanation of craft-only-what-I-have-kick:
I'm a crack-head when it comes to trying out new crafts. I realized this after xmas, when I bought a crap ton of yarn, a book on liqueurs, a bunch of glassware for apothecary stuff, and couldn't find places to put it all among all the leftover supplies from last years "new" crafting (woodburning/pyrography, stamping, soap, ect). So now I'm not going to buy more craft crap until I've used up (or given away) the old stuff. There was an attempt at a plan to do something each week until i was out of supplies, but that is way too organized for me. I also wanted to discipline myself by not using the new yarn until things get done, but hell, it's a cold winter here in P-town (yeah, that false spring sunshine from last post is gone) and I need a bunch of warm stuff.
Also, I got impatient with liqueurs. I'll give it one more shot, with almond flavoring, and maybe try out some tinctures, but I'm much more comfortable with oils and herbs. 

I know it's not spring but it feels that way.

In Portland I expect rain and weather that rarely goes below 35 degrees F. I don't expect to see the sun or patches of frost all over the ground, more like puddles, mudslides, and concrete grey skies if I can look up for more than a second without drowning. Seriously.
So this year I'm seeing the sun almost every day. And patches of ice on the ground...and freezing fog...morning temps around 24, which for us is really damn low, or maybe I just never paid attention to the weather growing up.
About 8 weeks ago, out of curiousity, I planted a bunch of stuff in the window.

garlic greens

Chamomile, anise, peppermint

I never expected this in such a short period of time.
So now it looks like spring, a very early, cold spring. That can only mean that I'm lighting candles and incense, listening to my (mostly) 90's Pandora station and spending what little is left of my limited funds on cleaning supplies for some early deep spring cleaning.
(What the hell else am I gonna do when my upstairs neighbor is building shelters and rabbit proofing her hardwood floored apartment above me at 9am?)
Right now I'm taking a lunch break after breaking and repairing the mop and scrubbing my bathroom floor.
All I can say is that it appears that my Virgoan nature takes over when I am not smoking (100 days last Saturday) and while I wasn't planning on doing this when I requested today off work, I don't have a choice.
Besides, now I have no money left to do anything else.
Ok, and it's kind of fun. kind of.
But the best part will be getting the kitchen clean, so I can continue to cook and make more crafts, and inevitably mess it up again.
Today's plan after the kitchen is clean:
Soap making
Liqueurs
Dessert which might be this or these

Wish me luck, all. The bathroom was easy. I'm dreading the kitchen for some reason.

YUM

Our toaster oven is probably a month away from a grease fire. Maybe that's what makes everything taste so much better though. So. Super. Easy. About half way thru toasting 2 frozen waffles, toss a marshmallow on top of one, and let it get kinda toasty/caramel colored. Slather on some hazelnut cocoa butter, and make a sammich... Oh, yeah, and consider cleaning out the toaster oven. I used gluten free waffles from Trader Joes, not because I'm one of those gluten free peeps, but because they do taste pretty good. Marshmallows are from Whole Foods, which is pretty much the only product I go there for, specifically.
Enjoy!

bring in the new year

Happy new year!

Mason jar + champagne

stupid bruise (NOT caused by champagne)

It has been almost 3 months since I quit smoking, and since then I've been a bit like a fruit fly on crack, in that I find little ways to occupy myself, but for short periods of time. Keeping updated here would have been crazy and impossible because I wasn't interested in any one craft long enough to take pictures, write about what I was doing and hit the post button. But here's a taste of what I've done in that time.

Thanksgiving, baking, and wearing a hand made hat and triangle scarf.

Baking and knitting. I also did some writing on a story I started a year ago, but obvs I couldn't take a picture of that. You probably wouldn't want a to see that anyways. ...chaos. really.
Learning new crafts:

Making apple pomegranate liqueur!

Unfortunately I didn't do everything I wanted to in 2012 (I blame pinterest...just kidding), but I did things I never thought I'd do, and I'm certain I'll do more hopefully awesome and unexpected things in 2013.
Here's some of my faves (recaps!)

Twin Peaks themed tattoo

New glasses

wood burning

wood burning

More baking

cleaning and organizing my kitchen (newer pic)

showing off my pretty spice jars

For the holidays I got lots of new yarn, specialty types, so my goal for the new year in knitting is to work with materials I've never used before, and to eventually write my own patterns. I also have an idea for dishcloth knitting, but I'm not ready to share that yet.
In 2012 I quit smoking and using any nicotine products, and started an exercise program, which I want to continue to expand. My main goals for the new year are to keep busy and to work on positive things.
What are your goals for 2013?

Bread photos

First Loaf proofing

Last weekend's baking, this recipe

resting before baking (on parchment paper)

YUM-baked inside crock pot

So pretty

2nd loaf proofing

Waiting to be baked on pan instead

flatter bread

Me with brand new glasses!

Fall and baking

I love love love fall, and could describe every color and smell and damn tiny feeling that sends shivers down my spine...but I'm pretty sure everyone else is probably doing the same. In Portland, cars are plastered in big beautiful wet leaves. There's Halloween. My anniversary is Nov. 1-until Election day. This year is the Elections, and our 8th year together. (Side note, we had a cute date today filling out our ballots over lunch and dropping them off at the library.)
Forget winter, there should be fall themed carols about this time of year.
Something about candy apple red leaves, picking out pumpkins, and baking bread. 
I saw this on pinterest, and thought, yay, another bread recipe. I love baking bread, but this was trickier than I thought it would be, mostly on my end of the whole cooking thing. One, I don't have the fancy cookware that seemed to be the best to use. She mentions crockpots as being ok, but my lid handle isn't heat resistant, not at 450 degrees. I found that out the hard way. Funny, when I thought I smelled burning plastic, I just assumed it wasn't from MY oven...oops. Also my crockpot insert is tall and narrow and generally awkward to fit into the oven. Something I should have worked out before I turned on the oven.
However, the bread smells great, looks beautiful and tastes wonderful. I prepped 2 batches of plain bread, and have baked one so far. I think I read that you can proof it for over 24 hours, maybe 48? I'll double check, because we've got even more cooking to do. For our anniversary weekend sunday dinner we're having steak and potatoes and cider.
This cider, from allrecipes. We made a test batch last night, and are making one more today. It's very good, but I noticed with my smaller (1.5 quart) crockpot it takes a lot longer than an hour to boil. So I put it on High for at least 2 hours. Maybe longer. I gave it a stir here and there and taste-tested it, serving when it tasted good. Oh, and I just threw in the spices, instead of wrapping them in cheesecloth.
All in all, I prefer kneading bread, and cooking it in bread pans or on a cookie sheet like I did this last summer. The steam thing is cool but I'm too poor for fancy stuff and clumsy to boot, and personally I like my crock pot anywhere but in the oven. I'll happily post a simple bread recipe (that involves kneading-hey, it's fun and therapeutic) and tutorial for those out there who haven't done it before.
But enough blogging for today, gotta get to cooking some more. Maybe I'll remember to take some pictures and post tomorrow?

On not smoking (craft-less post)

I've been going through a lot lately, so haven't crafted much of anything, and what I have done, I gave away without taking a picture (an elfish hat for my niece, so maybe my sister will take a photo?). One thing is that I got sick about a week ago, and quit smoking so I'd feel better faster. It wasn't really planned to be the big "I'm never smoking again" thing, but I'm taking the opportunity to run with it, see how I feel about a smoke-less life. So far pretty good. I used up the last 5 or 6 patches I had left from the last time one of us tried to quit smoking, and went patch-less today with lots of nicotine gum. I never really felt an urge to smoke until last night, watching Breakfast on Pluto which had me in tears, and featured a lot of smoking scenes at one point, 2 things that usually cue a need to smoke, but I still had on a patch. Because that was the last one, I fully intended to go back to smoking again today, but happened on a big box of (expired) gum, and took a pack of cigarettes (for just in case) and, I don't know, like 30 pieces of gum.
The good thing about the patch was that I didn't really feel much withdraw except in the mornings, but the hand to mouth wasn't being replaced by anything but food. On top of that, when my head isn't congested my senses are more acute. So I guess I grabbed the gum because I wasn't ready to lose that again. Cool thing about the gum is that you shouldn't chew for a few minutes after you eat, so for me that means I'm not constantly stuffing my face, like I did when I smoked, because it became natural to smoke after a meal, and therefore, to keep eating until I was ready to go outside. Also I work in customer service, so I can "chew" it while I'm working. That makes the job a hell of a lot easier.
The weird thing about smelling and tasting things better is that foods I used to like taste weird, like bad weird. Breakfast bagel? What's that weird burnt oil flavor? Was that always there? But at least some things actually taste better. When I did smoke sometimes I just kept eating to try and get to the good flavor. Are there any smokers or ex-smokers out there? Does anyone know what I'm talking about?
The only good thing about smoking was that it was the only thing in a quiet evening in that got me off the couch for a couple minutes every hour or two because there's no smoking allowed on the whole property. On nice nights we'd take a walk around the neighborhood (and smoke at least 2-3 cigarettes), but in crappy weather there was at least a walk up and down the narrow driveway a couple times a night. I try to make up for the lack of movement by walking more at work, but I want to find more active things to do after work. I sure wish there was a skating rink close by...
It'll be good to find new things to do, something cool and healthier than smoking anyway...wish me luck... :)