Pretty sure you know the answer to this one.

And posting just because The Boy Who Knits wants everyone to post and keep him amused. Problem is that I'm having a super quiet day with nothing exciting to post.
I'm debating writing up instructions for hand stitching kerchiefs and thinking about a couple other projects I'm working on. Plus I went grocery shopping this morning which can be exciting with Dad but it wasn't today.

Yesterday when I was inviting people into chat, I didn't notice that my copy didn't work, and in my c/p I had the name of a book that was recommended to me that I was looking up on Amazon. So I wound up asking all the beaders on my yahoo im list to "Bead chat- Slut! Growing Up Female With A Bad Reputation"
Did I mention some of those beaders are older conservative women?
A lot more people involved in that Whoops! than in Mike's unplugging the phone while he was talking on it.

I was terribly embarrassed.

So, to entertain me and The Boy Who Knits, tell me an embarrassing story. Maybe you were out on a date and wound up singing along with a New Kids on the Block song. Maybe you messed your alien invasion by accidentally spraying your (insert your planet equivalent of coffee here) on the (insert your intergalactic radar type system here) display and misdirected your ship to this planet instead. Whatever.
Anonymous comments with no tracking enabled.

Today's MP3 album of the day deal is Imagine by John Lennon for 2.99. You all know that I'm a John Lennon fan since childhood right?

I wrote a little more about the album and made a box inspired by it that you can find here.

Let's see.. what else? I didn't update yesterday because my modem died. It was showing signs of it before that, but it finally just gave up Wednesday evening. Boo Hiss!

So Mike stopped on his way home from work to pick up a new modem. I'm happy, the new one seems better for the upgraded package speeds we pay for. Here's where it gets well.. hilarious if you were here.
Mike couldn't get it to work right, so he finally called tech support on our landline and they talked him through it, asking him at one point if he had it on a splitter which our last modem did need and this one doesn't. He replied "Yes, I do." and walked over to plug the modem directly in. I watched him walk over thinking "He can't be about to..."
Yes. He did.
I looked at him and said "Honey, the phone won't work if it's unplugged."
He looked down at the cord in his hand, and we both just convulsed in laughter. It took me forever to stop and I'm still giggling actually. He got it all plugged in the right way and called tech support back, and explained what he had done. He also asked them if they kept score of how many people they could get to do that.

But I'm back now. I spent yesterday making up new short bread recipes, chocolate chip shortbread was a huge hit despite the fact it burnt. My oven ran hot and my timer didn't work. So I need to check how hot it's running and all that, and get a new timer. I also did some new computer art, and curled up with some L'Engle. I read some comics. Just had a very nice peaceful day.
Wednesday when we went out for comics, I stopped by the Evil Empire for some ibuprofen since I haven't picked up my prescription from my dad's this week. While I was there in the remnant bin I found some Care Bear fabric, so E and I are going to make some Care Bear X-mas ornaments I think.

This is hard. I'm against censorship for the most part, and while there are books I wouldn't want a 10 year old or under reading, books for teens are something different entirely.
I do have issues with the content of some books.
Like the Twilight books. Which doesn't mean I didn't allow my daughter to read them, frankly, for the most part if she's willing to read fiction, I'll encourage it. But we did have a talk about healthy relationships and exactly what I found objectionable in the series.
So my problems with books are much like my problems with television shows. A lot of them get their conflict from things that should never happen in a family that respects each other, in a relationship where the partners respect each other. Without other guidance, people start thinking that is normal, life starts imitating art. Romance novels teach people love is only real if it's full of angst and anger, sitcoms show that's it's okay to lie to your partner or parent if you know it's something they just won't understand. I disagree strongly.
I'm lucky, the sorts of books I'd have issue with my daughter reading mostly aren't books she'd be interested in. My son was the same way. I've not locked up books where they can't find them. I do require they tell me when they borrow one of my books so we can discuss it.
When William was younger, there were books my dad was against him reading. I told him he wasn't to lie to dad, but if he wanted to read them here he could. He didn't hide that from Dad, and Dad knew I was reading the same material and discussing it with him. Ever since he got off Goosebumps, I do read the same books the kids do.
So.. no, I don't believe in censorship. I do believe in monitoring though and discussion. I'm a lot stricter with my children than my parents were with me, but we have a strong relationship and discuss things with each other.

Well, everyone knows now that Kindle is available for PC right?

I love my Kindle. I got it right after the coverage went nation-wide because the original coverage wasn't available in Alaska. For me, it's this whole futuristic thing that appeals to me even more than flying cars would. I read a lot of cyberpunk and sci-fi well.. pretty much my whole life. The Kindle, with the ability to follow blogs and newspapers, near instantly download books and all that.. it is the future to me. Well, that and my ipod.

I love to read. I read all the time, and the reason we lived in the same place for 11 years without looking for a bigger house is because my husband flat out refuses to move my books again "anytime soon". Having the Kindle at least slowed down the books coming into the house. I still buy craft books and cookbooks, plus what I get to review. But fiction I buy mostly in Kindle format.

Anyway, all that gushing to say, I have a list of mostly freebies with the exception of a little booklet I wrote about baking bread that has a bunch of public domain cookbooks.

I need to add some of the Storey Country Wisdom Bulletins to the list. They are under 4 dollars each and are short booklets with a ton of information on all sorts of things. I just finished the one on making liqueurs for gifts which was exactly the information I was looking for. I want to make a vanilla cream liqueur for Mike's boss for the holidays, and I need information on how to make it. It didn't have a recipe for exactly what I want to make, but that's fine, I prefer to make things up myself once I understand the process. I'll post the recipe after I make it. I think it will be a good one for in coffee.

E and I are going to also work on dairy based homemade flavored creamers for coffee that won't have corn syrup in them (boo hiss!).

( Oh.. the love this week )
Really really loving the Slayer Scooby design. In a big almost fan-girlish way.

( wanna see? )
Yay! I'm so happy with how it turned out. I want to do more. If you drink bottled sodas what kind do you drink so I can get an average cap size? I can have my family/friends keep an eye out for empty bottles to snag caps off of.

As I've mentioned before, I don't make soap. I use it though for laundry, for my hair, for my body and if I could find a formulation that worked well with dishes, I'd use soap for that too.
Real soap.
I read a lot of books about soapmaking. Even though I don't make soap I'm fascinated by the process and actually E and I do plan to make some sometime soon.
I just finished reading Soap: Making It, Enjoying It by Ann Bramson, it's not very expensive and it's a good book from the early 70s. Not the best book to start with if you want to start making soap, but if you want a clearer idea of how it's made, the history of soap and some tips on making pretty handcarved bars from a simple box mold, it's good. The reason I don't think it's a good beginning soapmaking book is because soapmaking has come a very long way since the mid-70s, the internet, people sharing information, the fact there is so much more information than there was then means that a lot of the information is out of date. Like she says to put the water into the lye in a glass juice bottle which can be dangerous. More current books explain how to mix lye into water more safely.
But the sheer amount of information on the history of soap was a lot of fun to read, and unlike a lot of how to books, her writing style is accessible enough I was able to read it from cover to cover instead of just reading the parts that looked interesting. Soap is a passion for her and her book was one of the first really good ones on soapmaking. Another thing is that most of her soaps are tallow soap, which means rendering fat to make the tallow. I like tallow soaps. In fact an awful lot of current formulations by major soap companies contain tallow, which makes for a nice hard bar of soap. More modern books focus on vegetable and nut oils that don't need hours of boiling and straining and have no animal by-products.
I've gone into detail about why I like soap, real soap over detergents. At some point I'll have to work on a list to ask soapmakers so you can know what you are using and buying. I usually ask if it's hot or cold process (cold process soap isn't boiled after the lye and fat are mixed, it's given time to age and fully cure to be usable, hot process is boiled to completely saponify all the fat and lye mixture and is usable as soon as it sets), if it's super-fatted (which means fat added that isn't saponified) and what additional ingredients are in it and if it uses essential oils or fragrance oils for scent. I will buy soaps that use fragrance oils, but I like to know for sure. Rose and jasmine soap from cottage industries almost always use a fragrance oil because their essential oils are really expensive.
For store bought soaps, there are a couple kinds that are real soap. Little House in the Suburbs says that Ivory is a good substitute for handmade soaps because it's inexpensive and only has a few ingredients which is what you're looking for in real soap. Mike uses Dr. Bronner's exclusively, the liquid version which seems expensive, but a little bit goes a long way, and can actually be diluted to half water, half soap if the people in your family just can't resist using lots.
One thing that Ms. Bramson recommended in her book to cut down on soap usage was not running the bar across your body and keep it all wet in the shower or bath, but using wet hands to soap up your hands and using your soapy hands which keeps the soap from being too water-logged and helps it last longer.
I love using my soaps. Other than Mike, we mostly use Gladheart Acres soap, which is cold process. We buy several bars at a time and the kids sniff them and pick out their soaps carefully. They love the whole process of it. We use end-cuts and mistakes from them in our kitchen and by our bathroom sinks for handwashing.
I'm reading another book on soapmaking now in between working on my current project which is pin cushion that's just turning out too cute. I should have that done in a day or two to show off and post general instructions for on Beadwork at Bellaonline.com.

I love my Kindle.
One of the nice things about it is that slowly a lot of the public domain material from places like Project Gutenberg is becoming available in Kindle format so I can hit one click buy for free, and turn on my Kindle, open up the connection, and get it in seconds. The weird part is that a lot of it is not being reviewed. So I went to review a cookbook I downloaded and just started really going through in the last couple of days. The cookbook is The Compleat Cook Expertly Prescribing the Most Ready Wayes, Whether Italian, Spanish or French, for Dressing of Flesh and Fish, Ordering Of Sauces or Making of Pastry which was printed in 1658.(Project Gutenberg link to read online or download) The first reviewer said it was from 1658 and you couldn't make the recipes now. I had to disagree and said this..
Yes, the first reviewer is right, this IS a cookbook from 1658. But I don't see that as being a bad thing at all. A lot of the recipes in it are doable now and adaptable. If you are interested in renaissance era cooking at all, it's an invaluable guide and being in Kindle format makes it easy to bookmark things you want to try out later.
It is NOT a step by step cookbook as we are used to now, so it will take a little bit of research to understand what some of the terms are, as well as a decent knowledge of how to cook to be able to do the recipes in it. It will call for "enough flower to make a past" which means enough flour to make a paste/dough, or for cooking in a "quick" oven which means hot. You don't get exact temperatures or times or even exact measurements for a lot of the recipes.
That said, I read some of the recipes to my husband yesterday and he's looking forward to me trying them.
It also has a couple bread recipes in it, and a lot of bread recipes weren't recorded in the middle ages and during the renaissance because it was generally assumed that people knew how to make bread. Which leads to another thing that people miss in older recipes. We are very used to having instant dry yeast available to us, so when we look at older beer or bread recipes that call for a cup of yeast, it's a bit confusing. Yeast at that point was the sourdough yeast culture, a liquid mix of flour and water that had live yeast growing and active in it.
It's free and it's a nice bit of history.
----
I'll admit, there is something very strange about reading a cookbook that old on something that seems to be science fiction to me still even having one.
You can see all my book reviews here.
Okay..back to beading.

Snowy box because it's all snowy outside so I drew a simple snow scene and put it on a box to celebrate.
BeadTool4 review. I used pictures I took of mushrooms for my example, but if you ask nicely, I also did Sam Winchester for R.
Wild Rose bead pattern, also done in BeadTool4 using another photo I took this summer.

Other than that, working on a pincushion, and I knit myself a headband, but even using a suspended bind off, the bind off was too tight. *grumbles* It fits. It's just not as stretchy as I'd like.

The icky thing about snow is that of course, I hurt entirely too much right now. It's making me a little moody.

Oh! Sister Diane interviews Rachel Klein. Sister Diane does the great CraftyPod podcast, Rachel runs the incredible craft round up site One Pretty Thing. I've been really impressed with how regularly she updates and how she manages to find so many new projects. What really astounds me is the idea she keeps up with 4000 craft sites weekly to do it. 4000. Wow. Her organizational skills are astounding.

You know, just because it's the song playing. I do want a rock to wind a piece of string around though, or rather to crochet a piece of string around.
It's sort of impossible to listen to TMBG and be moody isn't it? It makes you want to bounce.

So let's see.. after picking up comics on Wednesday, we stopped at the perfume shop so I could pick up a bottle of Chloe Narcisse. It's an oriental floral that's very grown up, and also one of Mike's favorites on me. It's got just the barest hint of vanilla with peppery marigolds, narcissus and other florals on a musk base. Musks are touch and go for me, but this one doesn't turn on me because of the marigold. *sniff sniff* It's nearly as good as Opium to just smell.
I may not wear make up, but I do have a weakness for fragrance. Mostly vintage florals, although I remember when Narcisse came out which makes it probably the newest of the fragrances I like best.

Yesterday E and I made glittered ornaments (link is DETP with templates for the ornaments we made) so there is more ambient glitter in the house.

Other than that, working on a pin cushion, reviewing the newest incarnation of Bead Tool (which is an awesome program. Really. Christopher also does great support.) Also planning out my next shortbread experiment. My family is getting so sick of shortbread.

Catherynne Valente recently got married and her honeymoon is having some issues.
If you can help, please consider it.
When I make a list of my favorite books/music/tv shows this year, Palimpsest is hands down my favorite book. It's a gorgeous story that drew me in, and if you haven't read it yet, I truly envy you for getting to read it for the first time.
New printable and some musing about a project I want to do at Don't Eat the Paste.
Let's see.. what else? I made myself a couple scrunchies. So very 80s, but also one of the best options for damage free ways to constrain long hair.
Other than that, the last few days have been pretty much recovering from Halloween.

I did miss NCIS last night to watch V. I loved the original mini-series way back when. I have mixed feelings about the new version of the book because the author changed some important parts of the story. The new show so far seems good, and E was enjoyed it a lot. She's like me, there are shows she really likes, but she can turn off the tv for days at a time without missing it. I think this will be a winner for our family for as long as it lasts.

I love NCIS. I admit it. I catch Nova in reruns if new episodes of NCIS are on. *shh* Don't tell. I use the time for crocheting or beading or something, but Tuesday nights, I'm watching NCIS.
Today's MP3 album deal on Amazon is NCIS Vol. 2 Soundtrack which includes The Elements by Tom Leher and a song sung by Michael Weatherly who you may know as either Tony DiNozzo or Logan Cale for 3.99 in MP3 format. Yay.
Threadless is having free shipping INTERNATIONALLY from 10 am CT Nov. 2 to 10 am CT Nov. 3. No minimum purchase.
( May I suggest? )

I'll do a real post later. But I wanted to remember to share those before they went away.

We looked for something going on locally that looked interesting, and the zoo was having a Halloween event. So we went to the zoo which was a lot of fun and very crowded. William, 18 or not, figured if he was herding his easily distracted sister, he should wear a costume and get the loot. So he did.
Then we went out to dinner at William's favorite restaurant. It's also one of my favorites, but William loves it because they have crab and sushi on the buffet.
After that, it was trick or treating time. Again, William figured if he was herding E while Mike and I sat in a nice warm car and drank cocoa, he should get some candy too. You've got to love an 18 yo 6'1" young adult with no hesitation about trick or treating. E told him "I don't mind being your candy beard." (and much hilarity ensued)
Well, apparently nobody minded William trick or treating because both kids wound up with probably 4 or 5 LBS of candy. Mostly chocolate. Dad was happy because he knows he's getting most of William's candy.
Mike and I had planned on going out dancing afterward, but between the cold and the zoo I just physically wasn't up to it.
We *did* roast pumpkin seeds though. Next year I think I'm going to tell my friends who do pumpkins but don't do the seeds and Mike will tell his coworkers who don't do the seeds how to save them for me so we can do lots more seeds.

Today- Day after Halloween shopping! Yay! We hit all those awful mall shops we usually avoid. Old Navy had their Halloween shirts for 97 cents each so we got a half dozen shirts. Claire's had inexpensive knee highs with skulls on them. Then to the candy sales to get dad even more candy. Yeah. William's huge stash of chocolate isn't enough, dad wanted even more.
Head over to Dad's, where the wind storms of the last couple of weeks took down part of the very rotted, old, fire damaged fence there. Surprise surprise. Part of this fence is held up with a ladder. I'm NOT kidding. So in "OMG YOU MUST BE KIDDING" cold weather Dad and Mike repaired the fence. This was further complicated by the fact Dad had no tools. I'm not sure how that happened. But Mike knew from last time and brought his tool box with him.

My shoulder is still really unhappy with me.

But this icon is music related!
Thursday night was Marian Call's last Anchorage concert for a while. So we went there, ate great sustainable organic food, drank wonderful locally produced beers (those of us old enough to drink) and listened to great music.
It was her playing a lot of the music that's going to be on her next album. To all the Pride and Prejudice lovers out there.. she's going to have a long complicated song called Mr. Darcy on the album. For the zombie lovers, she was asked to write the theme song for Zombie Cheerleading Camp, a very wretched looking movie, but if they used her song, it's got a great song in it. Called Out for Blood which she does as a sing-along in her shows. She does a lot more shows in Washington, California et cet than she does here, well worth hitting.
But the song that won my heart is her Avocado Song "You're an avocado baby, you're only good for one day."

And she played Birdhouse in Your Soul. Asked everyone who knew the words to sing-along and you know something? My eldest had no problems. My youngest had problems recognizing it in her arrangement. I giggled really hard and sang happily offkey.

She told us we were becoming super fans. So now Mike wants an MC Sooperphan shirt. I'd settle for a zombie cheerleader shirt.
She also complimented Mike and William on their very cunning hats that R made them.

Yesterday was chat. Plus I worked some on a couple projects I've got going, but my working on things is seriously hampered by the fact my shoulder isn't any better. *grumbles* I have no clue what I did to it except somehow I sprained it badly. Yeah, I know, pay more attention and take better care of myself.

Happy Halloween!

I talk about my vintage craft books a lot, but not so much about my cookbooks. I have the collections of 2 very active cooks. My grandmother and my mother. They range from a copy of the Boston Cooking School Cook Book that's over 100 years old and in a bag to keep the pages together to an awful lot of 60s cookbooks, to church community cookbooks everybody has to have.
All in all, before my collection, I had about 200 cookbooks. I've been adding to that number steadily.
I get some cookbooks to review. I also buy myself vintage cookbooks. Not every single one I see, just the ones that pertain to one of my interests in cooking. So a bread machine cookbook from the 80s or 90s I'll probably pass on, I like doing it by hand. But Pillsbury's Bake Off Breads Cook Book from 1968? Absolutely irresistible. On the cover it declares proudly "Shortcutted favorites... the best of all the Bake Offs streamlined for use with new instant dry yeast"
I'm thrilled with all the new recipes. There is one for bread made with bacon fat instead of whatever fat you usually use and with crumbled bits of bacon in it. There is also a cheese bread that I really like the look of, but I'll have to adjust the recipe somewhat because nobody in my family likes American cheese.
The part that absolutely charmed me is the spreads section. Because they were all pretty much variations on a theme but all presented as individual recipes. You know..
Festive Olive Spread
1/2 cup butter, softened
2 Tbsp milk or cream
2 Tbsp chopped green olives
Beat butter and milk until light and fluffy, stir in olives.

Honey Butter
1/2 butter, softened
1/2 cup honey
blend until light and fluffy

There are cream cheese ideas too, along the same vein. Switch the ingredient to accent, but the basic process is the same for each of them. Maraschino cherries, honey, instant coffee and sugar, orange juice.

Reminded me somewhat of one of William's favorite desserts when he was little. I'd make him chocolate cream cheese or chocolate labneh and serve it as a spread for toast with strawberries or blueberries. I haven't made labneh in a long time. Maybe sometime soon.

Mike wants to get the costumed brats energy drinks this year. Since they seem to have multiplied. In the house across the street, we know for sure one person lives there. We don't know who else of the constant in and out there actually lives there. It can't be all of them can it?

Somehow I messed up my shoulder again, so no weight lifting this week. Last night we went swimming. Much fun. It was the first time Mike came with E and I and she had a blast splashing him.

I have a scrap of Superman fabric from a remnant bin and I used motifs off it to practice doing a strong seam by hand. You can find that here.

Umm.. another S word.. how about spaghetti since that's what I made for dinner last night?
I also made E some earcuffs.
( click here to see )
Other than that, crocheting, reading, reviewing. I got a copy of Felties to review from the Vine program. By the terms of the program, I can't review it here. But I did like it a lot, it's full of easy cuteness.
Still time to vote on my design at Spoonflower PLEASE? I'm begging. Not much time left to vote before the next round starts.

Although it's actually more a Punisher icon.
When my son was 5, my mom made him a Captain America costume. I let mom hit my fabric stash and old clothes stash for the fabric for it and loaned her one of my sewing machines to make it. We didn't know it at the time but it was the last costume she was going make him. The following year she was in California helping out Grandma after surgery, and the year after that, she died suddenly.

Now skip forward 13 years, and I spotted a Captain America costume teeshirt at Hot Topic, so I had to get it for him of course. He still has the same shield from the costume mom made him and he said he would use it. Of course, a shield scaled for a 5 yo William would look like, as Mike put it, a dinner plate. So E and I made him a shield yesterday. Dad was impressed, William was happy.
Also yesterday I wrote an article on how to do nice neat loops for eyepins.
AND cute paper snail craft .
Plus I made up some cinnamon-y goodness shortbread.
Cinnamon Vanilla Short Bread
Pre-heat oven to 375°F
1 cup of butter
1/2 cup brown sugar
2 tsp. vanilla
Cream together.
Add in 2 cups of flour. Mix for a few minutes and knead lightly with clean hands.
Pat into an 8" cake pan. Sprinkle top with a mixture of 1 tsp white sugar, 1 tsp cinnamon and pierce with a fork and score lines to cut it apart.
Put it in the oven for 10 minutes, after 10 minutes, turn the heat down to 300°F and bake for 20 minutes more. Take out the oven and cut apart along score lines. Let cool a bit.

Turned out really good. I think I'm going to go have a piece now.

Spooonflower's Doll Panel contest is in it's first round of voting. So please go vote, I'm on the 3rd page with the floral kokeshi style dolls. 1/2 a yard has 2 10 inch dolls set up on it, a fat quarter will make the blonde doll.
Other stuff.. I posted a couple new batty printables. Tags and labels in 300 dpi pdf format, and Bat embroidery patterns using my bat drawings.
Yesterday I had a plan to make shortbread and read Oscar Wilde. Instead I spent an outrageous number of hours working on a digital scrapbook kit. I don't scrapbook.
I also got a few graphic novels for myself. Fables. I missed it the first time around, but through the Vine program I got the Peter and Max book which I loved an awful lot. So now I'm reading them. The newsletter is a lot better targeted now. I'll post links to the next to the next two reviews in the queue since I can't cross post Vine reviews.

So last night, Mike was running late. He usually calls when he's on his way home and he hadn't called by 5, so about 15 after I asked E "Where do you suppose your daddy is?" she said "I don't know. How would I know?" and I said "You should be able to come up with a good story."
She replied in a very distracted way "I don't feel like telling stories."
"But it's fun. Like I think he's battling Moon Ninjas for dominance of the solar system."
That's when Mike called, which put a temporary end to the conversation.
When he got home, I explained my theory about why he was late. He just sort of looked at me like silly is something completely new in our household. I think he was still detoxing from work.
"Moon ninjas?"
E at that point got into it. "They look like cows. But they are hard to see because they are ninjas."
I said "But MOON ninjas. With natural crater-y looking lunar camouflage."
E nodded solemnly.
Mike looked at us and said "You two are nuts. You know that right?"
So when he headed up to the laundromat to do the bedding, we both told him to watch out for moon ninjas. E added "Seriously." because he didn't look like he was taking us seriously.