March 2010
16 posts
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WatchThis cute little bug was outside at work on Friday. Luckily I had my camera with me to film him! He reminded my sister and me of the animated caterpillars, scooting along.
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Brassy shell earrings
This morning before work I put these lovely shell earrings together (and wore them out!):
I made the jump rings out of some brass wire and put 3 shells onto the bottom of 1, then used 2 per earring base. These ended up nice and clustered, just how I wanted them.
There was some differences in opinion about which side of the shell should be facing forward. I liked the shiny side out, but the...
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Pruning and dead-heading
David and I spent all of this past weekend out in the garden cutting back the crazy growth that has happened since last summer (when we didn’t live in the house yet). Well he did the cutting and I did a LOT of pruning/dead-heading.
I started with the easiest stuff, removing dead blooms and branches from my hydrangea plants:
Meanwhile David was buried in rhododendrons working on...
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Onyx earrings
A few weeks back I made an onyx bracelet and finally got around to making the matching earrings.
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Mini vase
Today I picked up a small vase to put on the chalkboard ledge in our downstairs guest bathroom. I plan to keep this cute little vase full of fresh flowers as much as possible!
Filled the vase with small, clear marbles and water. Then added some Japanese Maple sprigs and 2 small daffodils from my garden. (tee hee! I can finally say that!)
Here it is, all set up:
And here’s how it...
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Weeding out the unwanted
I got my gardening fingers wet this past weekend doing some weeding. And by “some weeding”, I mean a whole LOT of it, all weekend.
Overhead shot of part of the front yard.
Our home is on a half acre with very little grass so the landscaping is, for the most part, bark with mainly native flora, most of which are rhododendron trees. The neighbors up the hill have a huge leafy maple...
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Fish tacos
Saturday night we made some fish tacos for the first time. I’m not a huge fan, normally, but these turned out delicious!
We used fresh cod which David seasoned spicily and then grilled out on the barbecue. There’s some leftover fish, and since it was surprisingly sturdy I’m going to try to smoke it!
We also grilled up some red bell peppers, and made some caramelized onions...
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Polishing seashells
In the winter of 2008 David and I spent Xmas down in Clearwater, FL. I’ve been a sucker for seashells since I was little, and I collected a bag full of pretty ones while there. They’ve been sitting in that same bag since then, waiting to be polished. I finally looked up how to do it and got ‘em started. The process seems fairly straightforward, but to be fair I haven’t...
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Smoked salmon and apple pasta
I love how easy pasta is to come up with delicious food in so little time! Today I’m home for lunch, and even with a not-as-well-stocked-as-usual pantry/fridge I still came up with a pretty tasty meal. This dish has a fantastic blend of sweet, spice, and smoke.
This personal sized pasta dish contains (roughly; I need to start measuring the things I want to post here!):
1/3 cup elbow...
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This weekend...
Was productive! Well, overall. I slept quite a bit to be fair.
Did a little work on decorating the bathroom we re-did. We’d wanted photos for the walls but are having trouble finding stuff we like for the frames. David had a great idea to turn the 11x14 frame into a chalkboard. So, we spent a few hours making a chalkboard. Here’s a preview!
We’re actually going to flip the...
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Canada, my friendly neighbor to the north
You gotta love a country who doesn’t take itself too seriously.
I loved the Canadian Winter Games ceremonies. Beijing’s were magnificent, but they made me say, “This is amazing to see on TV.” Vancouver’s made me say, “I wish I was there,” especially the opening.
Light-up moose horn headbands, sexy maple leaves, Shatner? What fun! And oh, so...
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“Damn, Canada won! D:”
– (How awesome was our last goal with only 24.4 seconds to go though, really! Epic game, best evar!)
February 2010
13 posts
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“Go USA (don’t worry, we still love you, Canada!)”
– Watching the gold medal US vs. Canada game, sipping Davy’s home roasted coffee, with a batch of salmon on the smoker. And did I mention it’s sunny? What an awesome Sunday! GO USA!
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Stuffed flat bread
While I was at work yesterday, Davy came up with a yummy flat bread recipe. Tonight for dinner we made more of it, and stuffed them.
Here’s the basic recipe; we don’t usually measure, or follow measurements strictly so these are all approximations. The wheat gluten flour can be substituted for more regular flour; we added it in so the bread would have enough protein to complete the...
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Wire wrapped wire jewelry
This is a project I’ve had in my jewelry notebook for quite some time now (it’s dated 09.19.2008!). The idea is to make a wire hoop base and then wire wrap various beads around the base, all with one continuous piece of wire. These could be any size, really, depending on the beads used but I made a pendant sized one.
This is a great project for odds-and-ends beads as well as seeds...
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Bead closet & onyx bracelet
I finally got my bead closet set up this past week. What is a bead closet you ask?
At the apartment I didn’t have a lot of room, and David hates messes, especially visible ones (the kind I’m best at!). So down to IKEA we went, and found this awesome corner closet in which I put all my crafting stuff. At our new house, I get a whole room to be creative in so this closet will be...
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We heart ravioli
Also for Valentine’s David and I made ravioli from scratch. Without a pasta rolling attachment for our mixer they ended up a bit thick but still delicious!
We used a basic dough recipe and used our mixer to knead the dough. Don’t really bake so we rarely use the mixer, but we’ll definitely have to get a pasta attachment and use it more.
After the dough rose, we flattened...
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My hearts are for Davy
When David woke up this morning, this is what he saw hanging over our bed:
This year we decided to do small things for Valentine’s, so I thought I’d make something cute. Plus David is hard to shop for. Plus it gives me an excuse to make these cuties!
Here’s what you need to make these cute little hearts; total cost ~$25:
Gray felt for the body (2 pieces)
Red and pink felt...
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Fashionary!
For Xmas David got me a fantastic notebook to do some sketching in: the Fashionary notebook! Truth be told, I can actually draw figures semi-decently but I’m awfully lazy. This sketchbook is a fantastic creation for getting ideas out fast. I finally started sketching in it last week.
I think it’ll be a great way to hash out some design ideas, even if it’s for items that I...
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Scallion pesto
Even though David is sick tonight and I needed only to make dinner for myself, he gave me a great idea: pesto!
Normally the pesto people eat is made with a basil base, but a pesto can be made with any aromatic. Generally, the sauce has an aromatic base (usually basil), a nut (usually pine nuts), Parmesan cheese, and olive oil.
Since this was spur of the moment I had to make do with what I...
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2010 Seeds
I’m planning to do a good chunk of gardening this year. Now’s the time to think about seeds. I’ve decided that for my first big gardening stint since I was, like, 13, I’d better do a potted garden so I can manage it easily. This year my goal is to grow salsa! (Although, I don’t have enough sun for tomatoes so… boooo.)
Crops I’ve decided to grow for 2010:
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Salmon cream cheese spread
David and I are not hosting a Superbowl party at our place this weekend, so we don’t have to make much food. We decided to make a salmon cheese spread out of what’s remaining from the smoked salmon session last weekend (we still had a bag of the unseasoned salmon left).
I didn’t take a picture of the first part, but I put a good handful of chives and half the salmon in my...
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Homemade dried tomatoes
Another cooking project from this past weekend.
Also for Xmas we were given a dehydrator. It’s a good, simple, no-frills machine. At first I was skeptical but after a successful round of banana chips there are several good factors to this simple design. First, you can see through it which means you can tell how done the food is. Second, there are no moving parts; this means I feel fairly...
January 2010
5 posts
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First salmon smoking, part 2
The salmon was put in the fridge at 3pm, and taken back out at 7pm.
After four hours in the fridge, the pot was full of liquid, a mix of juices from the fish and the dry brine melted into it. The salmon also darkened nicely.
After removing the salmon from the fridge, I rinsed each piece off in cold water to get large chunks of brine off, as well as a lot of the garlic.
Once rinsed, I...
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First salmon smoking, part 1
Exciting, my first attempt at smoking salmon! The recipe I’m using is a mix of several that I found online.
I normally try to buy locally caught fish that are in season, but I really wanted to smoke salmon as my first smoked fish; white fish seem a lot trickier to me. I managed to get a good deal on these fish at QFC, two whole sides of Coho for under $40. These have a nice amount of fat...
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WatchVideo from my first smoking venture; I got a sweet smoker for Xmas from David! We ate these short ribs too fast for me to take a picture, though. Since then I’ve done 2 more batches of short ribs (latest one in the rain), and I think I feel comfortable enough to branch out now. I’m planning on smoking some salmon this weekend, so I’ll be sure to take pictures of that process...
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Powder room remodel
This project is actually nearly complete except for some decorating, but since it was the first big remodel project I wanted to post it.
Here is our downstairs bathroom before the renovation. Every wall had wallpaper on it, plus there was a wallpaper border along the top near the ceiling. All of the finishings were bright brass which gave it a really outdated look.
Things that had...
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Purpose
The purpose of this site is to track some of my crafty stuff! All entries will be in one of the following major categories:
Food
Wardrobe
DIY Crafts
Home Projects
Photography
Music
More specifically:
recipes
gardening
clothing construction, deconstruction
jewelry design, creation
other diy crafts
home decoration, renovation
original compositions, remixes, covers
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