Nooooo!

That's the censored version - just because I know someone occasionally reads with a toddler on her lap.

Quilt binding FAIL.

I knew I was tight on having enough fabric to bind Procrastination Half Squares in the background green w/dot fabric.

So I tried to make it just a little smaller than usual.

And utterly failed.

I know there are worse things, but it hurts to work so hard to use the perfect fabric, only to end up cutting it off the quilt and having to throw all but 6" square scrap away.

Now I get to take that scrap - or the whole quilt - with me in a search for binding material that will work with it.

I'm also 100% out of the right color of thread.

I think this is the first time working on a quilt has actually reduced me to tears.

So I'm going to wallow in pity for a bit longer, then go out and find a way to fix this.

Finally More Machine Quilting Done!

It's been a while since I've done any work on my Procrastination Half Square quilt. It got basted and then it just sat around waiting for me to find the right tension settings to get some machine quilting done.

Honestly, I'm not sure I managed to find the right settings. But when I had a clear bobbin ready for a new color of thread, I went for it anyway.

 

It's hard to see in either picture, but I put two wandering "organic" lines down each stripe of white. 

It's a little easier to see the quilting pattern on the reverse side of the quilt: 

I like it, but I'm wondering if I ought to do a little bit of quilting inside each box. The half-squares are just over four inches square, so it's a little iffy as to whether the quilting is close enough together or not. Since free-motion isn't happening on my machine yet, I'm fairly limited in what I can put inside each square. I'd better double check the guidelines on my batting to see if I'm close enough or if I need to figure something else out.

I used a light green thread that intentionally doesn't quite match the green dotty fabric. I did have some that matched better, but I wanted the lines to really show up, even on the green.

I did have one fairly major biff:

The back must not have been pulled tightly enough when I was basting, because I wound up with this extra bit of fabric - which I didn't learn until after quilting. I really don't want to pick out those lines of quilting - and even if I did I'm not sure it'd be enough to make it right. So, again, I'm faced with making it right (even though it's more work), or letting it slide (since it's only going to end up staying with me).

Quilting issue aside, I think the quilting really added something to it. Maybe I'll try another picture of the top tomorrow morning - I've been told repeatedly that morning light is the best time for taking pictures, and maybe that will be soft enough to show off the work without completely whiting it out.

Cornbread Pot Pie

Now that it's getting colder, soups, pot pies, and baked potatoes tend to replace our warmer-temperature favorites like taco salad.

My standard chicken pot pie recipe uses biscuits as topping - but I thought I'd shake things up a little last night and try cornbread on top.

Cornbread isn't something I make regularly, so I cheated a little and used some packaged cornbread mix.

I'm beginning to suspect there's something wrong with my oven. Things are taking longer to cook than the suggested - or expected - times.

Take two:

Alright, now that the cornbread topping is completely cooked...

And the results?

Mixed.

The Texas-raised, meat and potato loving one of us loved it. The picky one took one bite and started to gag. My husband had seconds and praised it highly. I barely made it through my small bowl.

I am very picky when it comes to mixing 'sweet' with anything else. Salted caramel gelato? I can handle. Fruit glazes or sauces on meats or veggies? Never. Jello touching my lettuce? Nope. Reason number one I hate ketchup? It's sugar... that goes on... meat/potatoes? Why?! Potato salad is always suspect. (Did you know some people put sugar in it? I'll try to hold in my shudder.) I'd rather go hungry than eat pineapple on pizza. Actually, I'm incredibly picky about where I get pizza, because both the dough and the sauce are often too sweet for me.

Sure, I like to think I could eat at my favorite Bhutanese and Indian food restaurant every week, but fruit in curry is still more than I can stomach. With the exception of a single, amazing sweet potato/jerk chicken/mango salsa dish I had two years ago, I think fruit/sweet flavors belong locked far away from other flavors.

And yes, I did buy a divided cafeteria type plate for my first Thanksgiving dinner with my then-boyfriend's parents. I still use it. Even when I'm the one cooking. (And yes, bringing a divided tray to dinner is a great ice breaker. If you like explaining how incredibly picky you are. To everyone. Repeatedly.)

And to be honest, I was shocked that the cornbread turned out sweet. I mean, I added two tablespoons of garlic powder, and two tablespoons of ranch dressing powder. How was it sweet!?

I could try it again with a different pre-made cornbread mix... but... Once burned, twice shy I guess.

Next time, I just might make two smaller dishes of pot pie. One with biscuit topping for me, one with cornbread for my husband.

Another Pizza Adventure

Sometimes, I get creative in the kitchen. It's rare, but it happens.

Usually, I've either got a plan or no plan whatsoever and I make whatever I think I can pull together.

Last night was one of those pull it together nights. I hadn't been grocery shopping in too long, and we just had a few odds and ends left over. Eventually, I wound up pulling out a premade pizza crust and some chicken fingers that needed to be eaten. From there, it wasn't much of a jump to mix Ranch dressing with buffalo sauce to make a pizza sauce - just like my favorite buffalo crescents.

I thought it could have used more cheese, but we used all we had, so in to the oven it went.

And almost too long later (I got distracted reading a great article about World of Warcraft's new Mists of Pandaria expansion), out it came.

I know it's very orange. Like school cafeteria nacho cheese orange. No, it isn't because of my limited photography skills. The picture looks about the same as the real deal.

Frightening orange-ness aside, it was actually pretty good. I think I'll try it again with a different crust, but it could easily become another one of the regular dinners around here. And it wasn't even from Pinterest (that I know of).

Experimenting...

I'm running out of things to make with pumpkin puree. And there's a lot more of it in my fridge. And soon to be more of it in my freezer. 

cinnamon swirl bread

So, I'm experimenting with putting pumpkin in place of bananas in bread recipes.

So far, it's alright. Slightly less flavorful than I'd hoped for (better double the spices) but working out fairly well.


The picture is a cinnamon swirl bread slightly adapted from the recipe found (via Pinterest) at Sally's Baking Addiction. My pumpkin version was good, but a little bland. I've got my eye on a couple bananas that are about to turn brown if my husband doesn't eat them, and if he doesn't, I'll be trying this one with bananas asap.

My Other Secret Quilt

I've got a couple of projects I've been keeping to myself because they're somewhat tragic-looking. You know, the kind of thing I've been trying to convince myself to give up on. I'm not much of a quitter though, so as much as I am embarrassed to be sharing these, I'm going to do it with the hope that sharing them will help me find a solution other than giving up. 

Ready? 

Go!

There's another quilt that's been hanging out at my work space. As unnamed and unloved as the camping patchwork I showed yesterday. From shortly after putting fabric to needle, I disliked these both that neither even rated a number (as thus far I've started assigning numbers from the beginning of the top, not at the finish).

This one was started just to scrapbust a little. And to give me something to grab and go next time I'm invited to a baby shower with little/no warning.

It's okay. But... I'm a bit of a perfectionist (though you might not know by how many times I find myself typing things like 'it's not right but oh well' and similar statements) and I'm not sure 'okay' is good enough.

There's nothing wrong with simple, but I'm not sure simple is what I see in this. I'm afraid that what I see is more like boring or uninspired. I'm at a point where I could change it up a bit, but is change for the sake of change a good idea?

With a welcome back shout out to the only way I know how to manipulate these images my favorite program (Paint), here are some options I could easily do:

1. Cut it in four equal parts, rotate two (or more) of the four blocks, reattach
2. More or less a disappearing 4 patch application 
3. Cut it in four equal parts, add a pink (assuming I have enough) frame, reattach
4. Cut into four equal parts, add a pink frame, reattach, cut into four equal parts, rotate two (or more) of the four blocks, reattach
5. Cut into four equal parts, add a pink frame, reattach, then do the more/less disappearing 4 patch process 
6. No change, but do something interesting with the quilting. 

Options 1 and 4 would (hopefully) look more square - but I didn't feel like paint-sketching the whole border to square it up. Option 3 is alright, but again, it feels very simple. What I really like are options 2 and 5 - but I'm not sure either is really better or more inspired looking. Just... different.

So, again, I'm looking for input. Stay simple (and/or add interest with finishing touches like quilting and binding) or chop it up and make some changes?



On a tangent, it's interesting how the brain works. I worked on this while listening to a new-to-me audio book, and just looking at this quilt has brought back details of the story that I haven't thought of since listening to it. Just in case anyone wondered if I was a visual learner... 

Salvageable? Or... Not?

I've got a couple of projects I've been keeping to myself because they're somewhat tragic-looking. You know, the kind of thing I've been trying to convince myself to give up on. I'm not much of a quitter though, so as much as I am embarrassed to be sharing these, I'm going to do it with the hope that sharing them will help me find a solution other than giving up.

Ready? 

Go!

Full disclosure:

This is my first eye-spy/patchwork attempt. It's also for a family who spends a lot of time hiking/camping, and who won't be finding out the gender of their newest addition until the birth. So, the plan was to try a new-to-me style and to go with outdoorsy but not gender specific colors/prints.

I got a few steps into it and realized I didn't like it. To the point that I think I've only referred to it as 'patchwork project' or something equally nondescript. Actually, I'm not sure I've actually admitted I'm working on it at all. It sat on my work space for months. Every time I sat down to sew, there it was. Reproachful.

I picked it back up last night.

The parts I did last night (the first four columns, starting from the left) turned out much better than the ones I did earlier. But I'm not sure that's saying much. Actually, the first five columns aren't so badly sewn. I think the right most two columns are horrible. I don't know why I thought offsetting the patches was a good idea...

There are a few options for attempting to salvage it.

• Cut the right most two columns off 
• Either ending up with an 8x5 (odd size, and I don't have much left of these prints)?
• Or then adding the right-most back on (thus removing only the most offset one) and ending up with an 8x6?
• Cut the right most two columns off, and one or two rows as well. Redistribute the blocks from this cut off to make new rows/columns - aiming for something nearer square ?
• Cut it up into disappearing 9 patch style (or something similar)?

So, clearly I have a few options for continuing to work on it. Which means that my real question is not can it be saved, but should it be saved?

Do I dislike it because of two (or three) poorly done columns, or do I dislike the way the fabric looks together? Or is it something else completely?

If it's only because of poorly done columns, it's certainly fixable. If it's because of the fabric or the size of the patches, it becomes more difficult to salvage - and less worth the effort of doing so.

I don't expect to love every project I work on - and I know there are always ups and downs in a creative process - but at what point does that lack of love indicate a stinker of a project that should be put out of my misery?

My 2011-2012 Reading List Wrap Up

This is just going to be talking about books. And maybe some math. If that's not your thing, come back Monday when I'll be back to talking about quilting and baking.

Some background:
In October of 2010, prompted by a very disappointing surprise cliff-hanger ending to a book I'd enjoyed up until that part, I started keeping track of the books I completed reading throughout that year. What I had intended to be a fairly simple list of title, author, and a short note or reaction quickly turned into a series of spoiler-filled summaries, and paragraphs of reactions. In that year, I read 104 unique books (with re-reads of some of the books to bring me to a grand total of 122). Going into the 2011-2012 year, I made one major change and began rating each book on a 1-5 scale.

In the year between October 15, 2011 and October 14, 2012 I completed reading 79 books.

• Of those 79 books: 
• 50 were categorized as Young Adult Fiction
• 26 fall under either fantasy or science fiction
• 22 came from the General Fiction area
• 13 were from the Romance section
• 11 were related to fairy tales or retellings of fairy tales
• 4 were non-fiction
• 2 featured zombies
• 6 were short story collections
• 6 were repeats from my 2010-2011 Year (and all 6 were written by the same author)
• 7 written by Julia Quinn
• 5 written by J. K. Rowling
• 4 written or edited by Mercedes Lackey
• 3 written or edited by Holly Black

Mathematically, I averaged 6.583 books per month.
The highest finishes by month happened in: December (10), April (9), August (8) and November (7)
(Each half of October had 5 finishes, which gives October 10 if treated as one month rather than two half-months)
The lowest finishes by month happened in: May (2) and September (3)

My average rating was 3.31.
I gave one rating of 5, and one rating of 1.

Looking back on the year, I'd say the standout titles were:

• "Cinder" by Marissa Meyer
• "Mistresses: A History of the Other Woman" Elizabeth Abbott
• "Black Heart" by Holly Black (the conclusion to "White Cat" and "Red Glove")
• "Every Day" David Leviathan
• "Forgotten" Cat Patrick
• "Young Warriors: Stories of Strength" edited by Tamora Pierce and Josepha Sherman
• "What to Go Private?" Sarah Darer Littman
• "A Night Like This" Julia Quinn
• "Breaking Beautiful" Jennifer Shaw Wolf
• The Agency Trilogy by Y. S. Lee
• "Dust & Decay" by Jonathan Maberry

In the 2011-2012 year, I didn't force myself to finish books I wasn't enjoying, and I spent a lot more time on other projects (2010-2011 only saw 2 quilt finishes and 1 work in progress, 2011-2012 has 5 finishes and 6 works in progress). Going into the 2012-2013 Year, I expect to continue more or less as I did this year. 

Oh, and just for fun, in 2010-2011, the 104 books (plus 10 audio books) took 126 Microsoft Word pages for the write ups and reactions.
In 2011-2012, the 79 books (plus 18 audio books) currently take 148 Microsoft Word pages for write ups, reactions, and ratings - and I have yet to write up 6 of the audio books). I blame most of that additional length on summaries for the short story collections and the Game of Thrones books. 

Amanda's October 15, 2011 - October 14, 2012 Reading List:

1.       “Sharks & Boys” Kristen Tracy

2.       “Beauty and the Werewolf” Mercedes Lackey

3.       “Dark Mirror” M. J. Putney

4.       “This Girl is Different” JJ Johnson

5.       “Wolves, Boys, and Other Things that Might Kill Me” Kristen Chandler

6.       “Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban” J.K. Rowling

7.       “Forgotten” Cat Patrick

8.       “Ice” Sarah Beth Durst

9.       “Pregnant Pause” Han Nolan

10.   “Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire” J. K. Rowling

11.   “Dust & Decay” Jonathan Maberry

12.   “Ruby Red” Kerstin Gier

13.   “Want to Go Private?” Sarah Darer Littman

14.   “The Hunger Games” Suzanne Collins

15.    “Drought” JPam Bachorz

16.    “Terrier: The Legend of Beka Cooper, Book 1” Tamora Pierce

17.   “Fateful” Claudia Gray

18.    “Geektastic: Stories from the Nerd Herd” edited by Holly Black and Cecil Castellucci

19.   “Happily Ever After” Edited by John Klima

20.   “Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix” JK Rowling

21.    “Alien Secrets” Annette Curtis Klause

22.    “Across the Great Barrier” Patricia Wrede

23.    “Spindle’s End” Robin McKinley

24.    “A Lady of His Own” Stephanie Laurens 

25.    “The Secret of Spring” Piers Anthony, Jo Anne Taeusch

26.    “The Amaranth Enchantment” Julie Berry

27.    “The Name of the Star” Maureen Johnson

28.    “Nicholas Dane” Melvin Burgess

29.    “Wildwood Dancing” Juliet Marillier

30.   “The Poison Eaters and Other Stories” Holly Black

31.   “Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince” JK Rowling

32.    “The Stars for a Light” Lynn Morris and Gilbert Morris

33.    “Withering Tights” Louise Rennison

34.    “Chime” Franny Billingsley

35.    “Mistresses: A History of the Other Woman” Elizabeth Abbott

36.    “Crossed” Ally Condie

37.    “Cinder” Marissa Meyer

38.    “The Agency: A Spy In the House” Y.S. Lee

39.    “Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows” JK Rowling

40.    “Huge” Sasha Paley

41.   “The Agency: The Body at the Tower” Y.S. Lee

42.    “Unnatural Issue” Mercedes Lackey

43.   “How they Met, and Other Stories” David Levithan

44.    “My Heart Stood Still” Lynn Kurland

45.    “Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children” Ransom Riggs

46.    “A Dance Through Time” Lynn Kurland

47.    “Life on Mars” Ed. Jonathan Strahan

48.   “A Practical Wedding” Meg Keene

49.   “The Kingdom of Childhood” Rebecca Coleman

50.    “The More I See You” Lynn Kurland

51.    “Looks” Madeleine George

52.    “Gwenhwyfar” The White Spirit” Mercedes Lackey

53.   “A Night Like This” Julia Quinn

54.    “The Grave Robber’s Apprentice” Allan Stratton

55.    “This is All I Ask” Lynn Kurland

56.    “Breaking Beautiful” Jennifer Shaw Wolf

57.    “Just like Heaven” Julia Quinn (reread from 2010-2011)

58.   “A City Not Forsaken” Lynn Morris & Gilbert Morris

59.    “How to Marry a Marquis” Julia Quinn (reread from 2010-2011)

60.   “Thank Heaven: a memoir” Leslie Caron

61.   “Young Warriors: Stories of Strength” edited by Tamora Pierce and Josepha Sherman

62.   “Dead Reckoning” Mercedes Lackey and Rosemary Edghill

63.    “The Secret Diaries of Miss Miranda Cheever” Julia Quinn (reread from 2010-2011)

64.   “A Game of Thrones” George R. R. Martin

65.   “The Agency: The Traitor in the Tunnel” Y. S. Lee

66.    “Is Everyone Hanging Out Without Me? (And Other Concerns)” Mindy Kaling

67.    “The Far West” Patricia C Wrede

68.   “On The Way to the Wedding” Julia Quinn

69.   “Brighter than the Sun” Julia Quinn (reread from 2010-2011)

70.   “Toward the Sunrising” Lynn Morris & Gilbert Morris

71.   “The Sword of Truth” Gilbert Morris

72.   “Black Heart” Holly Black

73.    “Purity” Jackson Pearce

74.   “Every Day” David Leviathan

75.   “An Offer from a Gentleman” Julia Quinn (reread from 2010-2011)

76.   “The Viscount Who Loved Me” Julia Quinn (reread from 2010-2011)

77.   “On the Day I Died” Candace Fleming

78.   “A Clash of Kings” George R. R. Martin

79.   “Raven Quest” Sharon Stewart

Amanda's October 2011 - October 2012 Audio book consumption: 

1.       “Wrapped” Jennifer Bradbury

2.        “Leviathan” Scott Westerfield

3.       “Behemoth” Scott Westerfield

4.       “Goliath”  Scott Westerfield

5.       “Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone” J.K. Rowling

6.       “Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets” J.K. Rowling

7.       “Phoenix and Ashes” Mercedes Lackey

8.       “Unnatural Issue” Mercedes Lackey

9.       “Fire Rose” Mercedes Lackey

10.   “The Wizard of London” Mercedes Lackey

11.   “The Gates of Sleep” Mercedes Lackey

12.   “Reserved for the Cat” Mercedes Lackey

13.   “Serpent’s Shadow” Mercedes Lackey

14.   “Home from the Sea” Mercedes Lackey

15.   “The Westing Game” Ellen Raskin

16.   “Book of a Thousand Days” Shannon Hale

17.    “White Cat” Holly Black

18.   “Red Glove” Holly Black

·         Of these 18 audio books:

o   9 were repeats from my 2010-2011 Year:

o   Only 3 were new to me:

§  “Leviathan” Scott Westerfield

§  “Behemoth” Scott Westerfield

§  “Goliath”  Scott Westerfield

Happily Ever After Quilt: Very Scrappy Back

Do I have another blog? Or maybe I blog in my sleep? I swear I already posted this - but if I did, it was somewhere else... Or I accidentally deleted it?

Anyway!

Meet the Very Scrappy Back for my Happily Ever After Quilt:

Turns out - to no one's surprise - it's really difficult to take a photo of this project. Those light parts are made up of the leftover batik pieces so even though they look white, I promise they're the same cotton candy colors as the front of the quilt.

This shot almost shows the colors.

There's a single, large, slightly wonky star and a lot of scraps and pieces. Oh, and two leftover blocks from the front-making. But yes, mostly scraps.

I can't wait to see what they look like together (hopefully good since it's too late to do anything else) but I either have to do some machine quilting or buy some more basting pins. Or try spray basting. Hmm... decisions, decisions.


And yes, I'm still fighting with the tension on my Janome/Kenmore. Oh! I learned I've been saying it wrong; I was told this week that it's not "Jan-ohm," it's "Jan-oh-me." That might explain why the people in the sewing machine repair shop looked at me a little oddly...

Pansy Progress!

I have finally made some progress on the Pansy Patch front! I've been ignoring these little blocks for way too long, and finally last week I took some time to work on piecing them together.

I think the color is a little truer in the second picture, but the first picture is clearer, so you get them both. I really ought to take these outside - or at least somewhere with better light - before trying to take pictures of them. This project has been notoriously difficult to photograph, as well as difficult to execute.

Of course things aren't as perfect as I'd like. The first (left) pansy face is very close to what I wanted to see, but the second (right) didn't turn out nearly as well as I'd hoped. I know that my biggest issue is the center piece, which I'm constantly fighting with to get the right sizing. My instructions say it should be the same size as the corner pieces (with the white triangles), but that makes it too small when it all comes together.

I have one more pansy face to make, but I also have an extra center piece, and I'm really wondering if I should pick the second (right) face apart and try it again with a slightly larger center. I think it would look better, and it would make me happier in the long run, but I am tired of picking things apart!

BBQ Chicken Pizza "Braid"

This also is from when Pinterest and I were fighting. It's better now. And I'm happier. 


I am not good at braiding dough.

After the cookie problems, I didn't even try to search out directions for this pizza braid that I've had pinned for ages. I completely winged it. And this time, I think it turned out just fine.

Pizza dough plus Famous Dave Texas Pit BBQ Sauce (the only kind of bbq sauce I've found so far that I can stand, which of course requires a trip to another town because it appears to only be in stock at Super Target stores) plus baked chicken breast. Top it with shredded cilantro, extra sharp white cheddar, and a little more bbq sauce.

Bake as directed for pizza.

Cut and eat as soon as it's cool enough, which was longer than I thought.

Ignore comments from guests about how the appearance of the crust had them thinking about dessert.

Plan to make again.


Yes, I have Christmas lights up in my dining room. These ones have been up since we moved in - and they aren't coming down any time soon. They're blue. And they're one of my favorite things in the house. I use them all winter long to keep my spirits up when it's dark too early. And no, they don't match the Christmas lights that have been up in our bedroom since we moved in - and are also staying up. Yes, my decorating is currently stuck somewhere between college dorm and craigslist finds. Someday I hope to mature a bit more - but my pocketbook will have to mature along with my taste. 

Pumpkin Weekend

Well this is old news for anyone who follows me on facebook, but I feel like I spent my entire weekend thinking about and working with pumpkins. The little patch in my parents' garden put out twelve small pumpkins. Although my parents, the ones with gardening know how, were gone for the weekend (on their first vacation alone since before I was born!), one of the things they asked us to do while they were gone was to pick the pumpkins, haul them inside, and work on turning them into something other than decorations.

We did our best at picking them - though two got left behind as they were a little iffy looking. Thankfully, Mom and Dad will be home tonight to let us know if they're still okay or if we should do something else with them. Five came to my house, and five are still sitting in my parents' garage waiting for me to get to them.

Freshly washed

The first several posts I found about making pumpkin puree said the best thing to do was to wash them, cut them in halves or quarters, then bake them with a little water for 50-60 minutes at 350 degrees. So, that's what I did.

But after 60 minutes when I checked to see if the pumpkin was easily pierced by a knife, the answer was 'not really.' So, I let them cook longer. And longer. Until after two hours, when I gave up and pulled them out.

Even though things weren't going quite according to plan, I kept following the directions. Allow to cool turned in to 'watch two Star Wars movies with the guys,' so even though I scooped the pumpkin out of the skin before going to bed, things like running the food processor got put off overnight.

Looking in the blue bowl, it seemed like those two little pumpkins were hardly worth the effort... but I was determined to finish the process before passing judgement.

My food processor is fairly small and old, and up until this weekend I've only used it when making salsa or watermelon sorbet, so this was a bit of a test for it.

(I had to switch to my cell phone as this was the moment my camera battery ran down. I really wish it would make a sound at some point in the running-low cycle instead of relying on me to pay attention to the little battery indicator. Despite the fact that I'm usually more visual, I never think to check unless we're getting ready for a weekend out or something big.)

I had to add some water to the pumpkin in order to get it really pureed (but the directions I was following had prepared me for that), but I think it turned out alright.

So, I went ahead and cut up a third pumpkin and started it baking. And a couple hours later, while it was cooling and awaiting a trip to the food processor, I decided to finish my pumpkin puree test run the only way that seemed right - baking with it!

A Google search of pumpkin bread took me to this Pumpkin Gingerbread Recipe from Simply Recipes. I've been wanting to make gingerbread cookies ever since Offbeat Home shared a recipe for Gingerbread Bats (which looks amazing, but more intensive than my usual kitchen endeavors), so the idea of pumpkin + gingerbread was perfect.

Except I don't have molasses.

Google to the rescue again. Turns out honey is an acceptable substitute (though obviously a honey version would lose some of the flavor needed for real gingerbread). This was great for me, since I'd just discovered our honey was getting a little grainy (which I don't like on waffles or sandwiches, which makes me use less of it, which doesn't help the problem). So, honey it was.

Other than that small change, I followed the recipe (omitting the raisins and minced candied ginger, because I learned only after putting it in the oven that my husband actually does like candied ginger) and 60 minutes later a dense looking loaf of bread was cooling on my counter top.

Yes, it's a little dense - I probably should have made some high altitude adjustments. But. It. Is. Delicious.

Around my house, it is next to unheard of for something to actually cool the suggested amount of time before I'm cutting in to it. I made it ten minutes after taking it out of the pan (so twenty total) before I could no longer resist. So worth it. My husband's response? "Forget Level 90, I want to make another loaf!"

Now that it's cooler, it's still good - but I think in our next loaf (Monday evening if all goes well), we'll try using 3/4 or 1/2 stick melted butter instead of a whole stick. It's not bad, but it's just slightly more buttery than I want it to be - especially since I want to spread butter on top. Oh, we'll also be adding that candied ginger.

But in terms of homemade pumpkin puree performance? Excellent. Also, in terms of taste? Excellent.

I don't know how I'll keep working on the pumpkins with work this week, but I'm going to keep picking away on them as best I can. Which probably means I can expect the kitchen to remain in its current state of being more or less orange for the rest of the week, but there are worse things than a sink full of pumpkin-colored dishes to wash. Like letting pumpkins go to waste in the garage!

Progress

It's been a while since I did a progress write up - I don't think I managed on in all of September! So there are some old news finishes on here, and a lot of 'no progress' reports - but maybe sharing this will get me back on track!

Improvised Jungle Blocks Quilt

Top is finished.
Still to go: make a back, baste, quilt, bind

Pansy Patch Project

Two faces finished!
Still to go: More than I want to list.

Half-Square "Procrastination" Quilt

No Progress this Week.  
Still needs: quilted, bound, washed. Quilting will be held up waiting on machine repairs. 

Rainbow Road Quilt - Postponed for foreseeable future 

Continuing to sketch more solid plans for the pattern and beginning to collect fabric. Practicing making stars.

Happily Ever After [Wedding] Quilt 

Top: finished
Needs: back completed, batting purchased, basted, quilted, bound, washed

Patchwork Quilts
1. Backward progress: unpicking three rows of blocks.
2. Collecting and cutting denim

Cross Stitch - Finished 

Holiday Gift Bags - Finished?

I think I have enough gift bags to get me through this holiday season, but I'll have a better idea when I've done a bit more planning/shopping.

Larger Flannel Wipes - Finished

Singer Machine Cover - Finished

Waiting to Start:

• Teddy Bear Blanket II
• Curtains for kitchen window
• Holiday Projects
• Cloth (prairie point?) garland
• 
  

Small Restyle

Both my husband and I are guilty of putting our feet on the coffee table on a regular basis. Even though we both think it's not the best habit - and my husband is pretty grossed out by the idea of feet where there is sometimes food. So, when we had the opportunity to take home a free footstool, we jumped - even though it wasn't exactly our style. 

I'm not sure what the stool looked like originally, but the purple fabric is covering at least one earlier version of upholstery fabric, the purple fringe trim was only held on with hot glue, and the gold paint on the legs was chipping to reveal unstained wood beneath. Even if gold and fringe were our style, the fringe was coming off in some places, and the chips in the gold were more 'whoops' than 'distressed.'

After testing it for a couple days to make sure it was the right height to use, and worth the loss of floor space in the living room, I was ready to give it a bit of a restyle.

Since the fringe and trim were only hot glued on, it only took a little bit of tugging on the unglued edges to peel all the fringe off. I thought it was an immediate improvement.

Separating the legs from the top took a few minutes - mostly as I struggled to find the right kind of tool to undo the screws. A little bit of sandpaper to the places where the glue hadn't quite come off and I was ready to spray paint.

Note - yes, I'm a little worried I should have sanded it all or used a better primer between the gold and the paint I used. But I'm not investing a lot of time or effort into furniture or decor right now, and we're usually not too hard on furniture, so I think we'll be okay - at least until we'd be looking to replace the coffee table with a larger ottoman/foot stool anyway, at which point this piece will likely move somewhere else or be given away. 

It was probably a little too windy to be spray painting:

but the breeze died down before I finished spraying.

I didn't want to spend any money on this project, so I used the paint we had left from other projects - a flat black, and a clear gloss finish. My gloss coat is a little less even than I would have liked, but that was completely user error. I was never very good at spray painting, and taking two years off (minus that one job for a stage prop last year) has not increased my skills.

After leaving it to sit outside the rest of the day, I brought it back inside, reassembled it, and left it to continue to dry the rest of the night. Yes, the spray paint claimed it would be dry in only 4 hours. But I like to leave spray painted projects outside as long as I can, and I wanted a little extra time before setting painted feet onto my floor. Fortunately, I found some sticky slider feet in a drawer of old supplies, so I didn't end up putting freshly painted feet on the rug.

I left the purple fabric in place for now. I'm not sure the purple quite goes with our orange/green chairs - although purple/green/orange are some of my favorite colors to combine. We're pretty constantly looking for another living situation (which is probably a post in and of itself), so many of the pieces of furniture are viewed as temporary place holders or things that will eventually get painted or re-upholstered to fit in another space depending on their quality. Most of the furniture we own was either given to us (like that chair and foot stool) or purchased second hand from thrift stores, garage sales, craigslist, or occasionally, rescued from the dusty, raccoon infested attic of my parents' barn. A generous soul might call our place eclectic, but I tend to think of it as barely controlled chaos.

Black fits out current furniture much better than the gold did - and I think it looks better with out the dings and scuffs showing quite as prominently. And best of all, both the cat and I have been enjoying having an extra landing space in the living room. My husband has yet to get a chance to use it.

Reader Cleaning (again/still)

In these last few weeks of being overwhelmed, things like quilting and crafting are spending more time sitting in 'to do' piles than on the work tables. It isn't fun, but the thought of sifting through my mess to get to the work table requires more energy than I have - and I don't want quilting or crafting to feel like something I have to do. I want them to be things I choose to do for fun, and only occasionally be things I push myself to do under pressure of deadlines. So, while I'm disappointed not to be doing anything on them, I'm not terribly disappointed.

Things like checking my email, facebook, and Google Reader are much harder to ignore. Most days, the only way I'm able to keep ahead of my email inboxes is through my smart phone. Checking my emails on lunch breaks or long elevator rides lets me keep on top of things (especially since 9 times out of 10 all I need to do is hit delete). Facebook gets checked two or three times a day, at breakfast (I usually eat at my desk), at lunch (on my phone), and sometime before bed. Fortunately, it's a pretty quiet place.

I can't/don't check my Google Reader on my phone. I don't think the poor little thing has the space capacity left to do that, and honestly, I don't want to.

For the last couple weeks, I've been coming home to a massive list of things waiting to be read (400-800 posts on weekdays, 200-300 on weekends). There's no way I've got the time or energy for that business. So I've been picking out a few favorites, then clicking 'mark all as read.' I hate doing that - not only does it take longer to load individual subscriptions, but what's the point of following blogs if I'm constantly deeming them not worth reading?

So last night, after an hour-and-a-half of picking had only reduced my total by 45, I decided to get a bit more ruthless in my subscription cleaning.

I started with 325 subscriptions.

Which, after a spring/summer of constantly attempting to delete 5 a month, is better than my all time high (which seems like it was approaching 700). But it's still beyond what I'm capable of following if I'm going to be working this many hours.

I'm not good at purging my own stuff, so I made a few guidelines for myself:

Delete it if:

• it hasn't been updated in more than one month 
• the content (or majority of the content) no longer matches my interests
• duplicate subscriptions/dual content - I had at least three sets where I was following an 'address.com' and an 'address.blogger.com' or something similar
• anything I've consistently skipped reading for the last two weeks 
• if the Reader display is only a preview and I never click through to the actual site
• photo heavy to the point of being difficult to load or something I usually 'next' over

Keep it if: 

• it belongs to someone I like to pretend I know - the ones where I find myself starting stories with "my friend on the internet, well, not really my friend because I've never talked to them but..." 
• it inspires me
• anything I consistently choose to read when my time is short

After an hour, I was down to 264 subscriptions. 

It's not a huge difference, but I'm going to give it a couple days and see if this is a better number for me to deal with on a regular basis. I felt like I was being fairly harsh in what I unsubscribed from, but I know there are still a few more I could cut; yes, those are ones I'd miss, but they're also ones who post 20+ items per day. 

(I don't just follow house reno, diy, and sewing/quilting. I also follow some political things - which can easily blow up into a good 20+ posts a day - and some fashion submission things, and some tv/movie/book fandom things. And while these are the kinds of things I will continue to skip over on a crazy day, I'm not ready to give them up. And at this point, the only way I'm unsubscribing from those funny cat/cute dog posts are if I also unsubscribe from all the political things. It's all about balance between things I feel I ought to be aware of but make me cross vs. things that are utterly silly/cute and make me happy.)

I didn't manage to go through the whole list of subscriptions from top to bottom - in part because of time constraints - but it feels like a good start. I'll be curious to see what my unread numbers look like tomorrow when I get home. I'm hoping to see a noticeable improvement. 

Fingers crossed!

Update:
This was my 'to read' pile the next day:

Only 188 items to read. It's only been one day, but so far I'm feeling much lighter. 

Pumpkin/Chai/Kiss Cookies, and Crescents Too

These are a little late in getting shared online. Pinterest is working fine for me now. 

I wanted to make cookies the other weekend. And I wanted to make very specific cookies. But Pinterest was really fighting with me and even though I had the picture of the cookies I wanted to make, I couldn't get to the recipe. Google turned up a few alternatives, but not quite what I was hoping to make.

So, I thought I'd make my own version of what I wanted by making a few changes to a recipe I already know I like.

A box of cake mix, some powdered chair mix, a can of pumpkin, and some Hershey Pumpkin Spice Kisses.

All things I happened to have in my pantry. Although, I had to hide the Hershey Kisses from myself to ensure I had them in the pantry when I got around to making cookies.

I added some chai mix to the cake mix. And by some, I mean two heaping containers of the little scoop inside the can. I'd guess that was something like 5 tablespoons.

Once the dry cake mix smelled sufficiently like chai - to the point I began to wonder if I would be able to convince my test subjects guests to try the cookies - I added the can of pumpkin. And just like last time I used this brand of canned pumpkin, it immediately seemed too moist (I generally use Libby's and have much better success with that brand, I'm not sure why). Still, I followed the directions and baked the cookies as usual.

Upon pulling the warm cookies from the oven, I topped each one with a Hershey's Kiss.

And tried to wait for them to be cool enough to eat.

The instructions said not to touch them after adding the Kisses. Directions about what not to do usually make me curious. In my case, they just kind of collapsed a little.

They don't look quite as good collapsed, but I found them easier to eat that way. 

My cookies turned out nowhere near as cute as the ones I wanted to make. I'm guessing they didn't taste nearly as good either. All of us ate one, and collectively agreed we'd rather have the usual pumpkin/chocolate chip - so I dumped some chocolate chips into the dough and went back to eating the Hershey Kisses plain. Which really, was a win-win. 

It also means I had some Kisses leftover the next morning when I was making breakfast. 

I'd hoped for doughnuts, but when time ran short, I pulled out my favorite crescent rolls, the jar of crunchy peanut butter, Nutella, and those extra Kisses. Eight crescents turned into 2 plain, 4 peanut butter/Nutella, and 2 Pumpkin Spice filled. All of which were better than the cookies from the night before. And yes, the peanut butter/Nutella crescents were another Pinterest idea. The Hershey Kiss crescents only happened because I was tired of spooning out Nutella, and they happened to be sitting right there. The plain ones? Those were in case the other experiments turned out terrible and we needed something to chew on while I scrambled for another breakfast idea. 

I'm relieved Pinterest started working for me again - because as interesting as it was to use only a photo for baking inspiration, I think having the right recipe is a little better for me.