Boston Bag

A few months back, a friend asked me to make her a bag in which she could haul her belongings all around the city of Boston, where she recently relocated to.  We collaborated on the details, and this is the result.  I hope you love your new bag, SAS!

A Knit Sewing Binge

I recently got it into my head that I wanted to buy a bunch of knit fabrics to make comfy dresses and t-shirts out of.  Luckily for me I found the perfect seller on Etsy who had a boatload of vintage knits for sale, meaning I could buy a bunch and save tons on postage (it didn't hurt that the seller lives less than 100 miles from me).  And that's how I ended up with this:

First, I made this long sleeve dress because the fabric is quite thick like a sweater, and I figured I could get some wear out of it while it is still a little chilly out.  If only I had looked at the weather forecast and seen that temperatures were soon going to be in the mid-80s for a stretch of time, I might have made a different choice for my first project from this haul.  Luckily the temperatures should be going back to normal in the last half of May (mid-high 60s) so I should be able to wear this dress to work without sweating through it.

Next I made this brown dress that turned out a little drab.  I may get a colorful belt to wear with it to jazz it up a bit, because all of you who know me know that I'm all about jazzing up my outfits (ha!).  For this one, I used a half circle skirt to give the dress more volume.  I much prefer the way it looks and it's more comfortable, but it takes more effort and uses a lot more fabric so I won't be able to use this style with all the fabrics I got.

Most recently I finished this navy maxi dress.  I'm not 100% sold on wearing long dresses, but I thought I'd give it a try for those days when it's not quite as warm and/or I haven't shaved my legs super recently.  The fabric is thicker than some of the others and is a little scratchy, but it has a cool stripe texture woven in, which I like with the long length of the dress.  I made a built-in shelf bra to provide some extra coverage up top, for a softer feel against my skin, and because the back is slightly racerback style that is not accommodating to regular undergarments.  Ideally the dress would have been about an inch longer but I couldn't eke any more length out of the fabric.

Now that these three projects are done, my recently acquired knit stash is quickly dwindling.  I think I'm going to take a knits break for a while before jumping back in.

How to Make Chocolate Mousse

On the back of a thank you card HH and I received for the Christmas aprons I sewed was a recipe for chocolate mousse, something that always sounds so delicious but that I don't think I've ever actually eaten before.  When Valentine's Day rolled around I figured it was the perfect time to give the recipe a try.  The ingredient list is very small, but there is kind of a lot of work that goes into it because you need to address each ingredient separately before gently mixing them all together in a certain order.

Weighing out the chocolate for precision.  In reality, I ended up using more than I was supposed to because that's how much chocolate we had.

Melting the chocolate in a double boiler.

Separating the whites from the yolks so they could be beaten separately.

The melted chocolate and egg yolks.

Mixing in the whipped cream.

Whipping the egg whites...

...into soft peaks.

Adding the egg whites, which look a bit like soap suds.

The finished mousse before getting chilled and devoured.

There was a little extra so I put it in a popsicle mold.  Unfortunately, it didn't set up and we ended up eating it with a spoon anyway.

Our Valentine's Day dinner: banana pancakes with whipped cream, apple cider syrup, and homemade bacon.  OMG it was all so delicious and we hadn't even had the mousse yet.

And for dessert was the scrumptious mousse.  It was rich and creamy and exactly what I imagined it should be like.  Definitely a keeper for special occasions, or, you know, whenever.

Homemade cheese cave set-up

After I declared 2013 the Year of Cheese! I quickly realize I was going to need a set-up for aging some of the cheeses.  Most of the recipes I looked at called for aging cheese at a temperature of around 55 degrees Fahrenheit and around 90% humidity.  After doing some research some websites suggested a wine fridge because you can control both the temperature and humidity, but they can be spendy.

With some additional Googling I found there are a number of ways to create your own cheese cave.  I settled on this design.  The temperature control has been working well but I'm still trying to figure out how to keep the humidity up enough.  When I open the door to check on the cheese most of the moisture escapes.  I bought a weather station to monitor the conditions inside the fridge and the receiver sits right on top so I can see it right away.  Currently the cave is set up in our living room but I imagine LJ well want it hidden away somewhere else sooner or later.

Shredded pork tacos

As we've been slowing working our way through the third of a hog sitting in our freezer we have had to think creatively on how to use some of the bigger cuts of meat.  We recently used this recipe for pulled pork to make tacos which were excellent.  And we used the leftovers to make a big batch of enchiladas to provide us with lunches at work for weeks to come.

 

Lumpia

I first learned about lumpia from a food truck that set up at our neighborhood farmers market a few times.  They were delicious, and I do love an excuse to break out the lard and do some frying so I decided to make my own.

Making them involved cooking some ground pork, adding vegetables and seasoning, rolling the mixture in wrappers and frying up the individual rolls.

 

I made a huge batch so that I could put the extras in the freezer before they were fried.  That way I could pull out a few at a time and fry them up for lunch or dinner as needed.

Procession of the Species (aka The greatest parade ever!)

Last weekend LJ and I decided to make our way to downtown Olympia to take in the Procession of the Species.  I'm usually not one for parades but LJ had read up on the event and promised a good time (describing it as an event that could be very hippy/granolie but seems to have a perfect balance of weirdness and community pride) and that we could leave early if I wasn't enjoying it.

The weather was nice so that definitely helped but I enjoyed it so much that I'm already looking forward to going next year.  I'll do my best to describe what I witnessed but I won't be able to do it justice.  It was a parade made up of individuals and groups who were dressed as flora and fauna.  Some of the groups also played musical instruments which helped keep up the festive atmosphere (like more enjoyable marching bands).  The participants were all ages which also increased the entertainment factor as some of the costumes were very clever (the 17 foot tall giraffe and the geoduck for example were very impressive/humorous).

The crowds were 2 or 3 deep along the whole parade route

Before the parade started kids were drawing with chalk all over the road.

I could have watched this guy dance for hours.  Sorry I didn't know how to work the camera well enough and ended up taking the video sideways.

A virus

Moths flying around a light bulb

A dragon?

There were lots of jelly fish.  A smart costume in case it rained.

A brilliant trilobite

A giant whale mostly made out of plastic sacks

A family of frogs

The geoduck got lots of giggles from the adults in the crowd.

I couldn't get a good picture of these guys, but they were apes riding piggyback

A pride of lions