Before:
After:
Apologies for the blurry ‘after’ pic. In a rush to get to the eating part.
My dough slicing left something to be desired. So smaller bits were smoodged together to make right-size pieces. That’s where I go freestyle.
We’ve all endured them: The weeks that start with so much promise and fall apart. Nothing horrific, just the water torture of small events insistently eroding time and energy.
Then Thursday rolls around and I’m scratching my head, wondering what I can get done.
At least I made a cake, but even that started with little promise. It’s King Arthur Flour’s Golden Vanilla Cake. The recipe begins with mixing the butter and dry ingredients. Initially the consistency didn’t look right so I upped the mixer speed – not thinking that there’s no liquid yet.
After cleaning up the cloud of flour that precipitated on the counter, then baking the cake, I wasn’t satisfied. Again, the consistency: edges drier than I thought they should be, center on the brink of too moist.
The frosting was fine, but by now I was obsessed with consistency and didn’t like the way it spread.
Even the first piece of cake elicited a ‘whatever’ response. Too soon after baking, I think. At this point, I was pretty much Lucy in Peanuts.
For some reason, the hubs was mad for it. Had a second piece late in the day.
By the next day, I was pleased with the outcome. And as the week goes on, the cake tastes better. Could even make it again.
There might be just enough cake to get me through the week. Thank goodness.
The zipper on one of the sofa cushion’s slipcovers finally, really gave out this time. After each of the last few washings the zipper has failed but reversibly so. To eek out one last use, I decided to stitch the cover closed. Inelegant but effective.
A miserable task at best, it was made worse by the shrunken slipcover. Trying to hold it closed and stitch was almost impossible.
The fabric is a thick, tightly woven twill, so pushing the needle through was an effort for every stitch. Unsurprisingly, this drew blood. The two splotches in the center of this image are from the third bloodletting.
Then, when I walked away for a moment, one of the cats chewed through the dangling thread.
I bow to the will of the universe.
Well, not so sure about coffee sugar. But as with almost all things Fishs Eddy, this made me smile. And that is a good way to start a Monday.
How about making this baking week? Baked good go well with coffee and I’ve just found two new recipes to try.
Nothing like focus to invigorate the creative mind.
The truth of it: Buying roasted chicken has spoiled me. Reasonably priced and ready to go. But the hubs loves to roast chicken on the grill. Variety of flavors, he says.
So I shrugged at the Whole Foods Market sale, whereas he stepped right up. The first chicken was quite tasty. Why not get two (or three) more? And so he did.
That’s Italian-seasoned on the left, mesquite on the right. And a third smoking on the grill. All the bones, etc., will end up in the same pot for stock. That ought to create an interesting taste sensation.
After much consternation, dismay, and angst, I have learned Continental knitting. Previously I was a thrower. Clearly, this has not been an easy learning curve. Only regularly reminding myself to breathe allows my shoulders to lower from next to my ears to their normal level, and the needles to drop from straight in front of my face to a reasonable working height.
A recent post by KnittyNuhn over at Nuhn Handmade inspired me to get off the duff and make something other than a medium-long, kind-of narrow piece of practice fabric. You know, an item a person might wear.
Keeping it simple. And stylish. The Color Affection shawl has been sitting in my Ravelry library; time to give it a go. The yarn is a lovely Alpaca from C&M Acres. Not quite the right amount-per-color or, frankly, the right weight for the pattern. So I’ll be winging it – something I am comfortable doing. Wish me luck!
So I did Big Cooking again the other day. Green Soup, two kinds of cookies, then roasted a chicken and roasted a beef roast.
What did we eat for dinner? Leftover Chinese food. . . Something is just wrong about that.
Either way, this sheep pillow is too fun.
Here’s the big question: Will a project’s humor/joy/fun be everlasting enough to be commensurate to the effort? You never know at the beginning. For me, it depends on what’s in the stash; there’s an inexplicable joy in putting previously undesignated yarn to use. And if the project has a home before it’s started, well, that pretty much seals the deal. Like the year I knit 36 little pieces of coal for holiday gifts. Great response – only two people didn’t get it, and I realized those friendships were too lopsided to salvage. I think they did too. A little galvanizing moment worth the effort.
With the undercabinet lighting installed (that string of reflections on the shiny countertop), ’tis time to tackle the backsplash.
Simple white subway tile? Seems nothing is ever simple with us. In our stash of home-improvement bits was an almost full box of subway tiles. New tiles wouldn’t match exactly so we had to carefully develop a ‘random’ mix of new and old. That’s the chart by the mastic. A nice slightly rustic look which fits in well with the overall Midwest Scandinavian look I’m after. Yes, I made that term up and am a little too proud of myself about it.
All those cuts. This will not be done in a day but it will be lovely.
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