Alright, so I know I haven't posted lately. I've been super busy with photography and work-drama. In the last week, though, I've picked up crochet. I love it. I've made just about everyone I know a hat or two, and I've made several bags.

While marooned in Santa Barbara for work last week, I found a lovely little yarn shop within walking distance and bought far more yarn than I could actually afford. With some of it, I decided I was going to make myself some fingerless gloves. I found lots of patterns that I like. I'll share the list.

http://www.canadianliving.com/crafts/crochet/basic_crocheted_socks.php

 

All of these I found through this wonderful little directory:
http://www.crochetpatterncentral.com/directory.php


I'm totally in crochet madness mode. If you have any crochet projects you're proud of, or crochet patterns you'd like to share, feel free to post them here.


In other news, the Oh-crap-I-need-a-costume rush has started. Every year my husband and I go to watch his brother's house so that they can take their girls trick-or-treating. This year, I've decided to be a witch. I'll be making this top in black knit: http://www.burdastyle.com/patterns/show/3596 coupled with some skirts and shoes I already have. I also intend to make a hood and some wristlets out of some witchy, halloweeny fabric I have.

Ari, my husband, was somewhat  distraught at being left out of the costume planning (since I kind of figured that his costume was his department), so he's planning on being an evil monk this year, and guess who's making the costume! I'm going to be going vaguely off this tutorial from the lovely threadheads:

Threadbanger has some great last-minute costume ideas. I'll make an attempt to post pictures after the costumes are done. 

Happy Birthday Kara!

Sorry I haven't been posting recently, peoples. I have been so incredibly busy it's not even funny. I haven't had time to think or care about anything for several months. Luckily I quit one of my jobs and going to be trying to work more on things that make me happy and help me put my mark on the world.

With my next paycheck or two I'm intending to buy myself a new bike, who a friend of ours is going to motorize for me. I'm terribly excited about it. It's bound to make me accidentally more atheletic when I run out of gas, and is of course will get much better gas mileage than my car (Which even that gets about 35 miles to the gallon. Even so, gas is too expensive and I feel guilty about driving everywhere.) and not to mention it will be totally rockin'.

I am also working on getting myself a plot in a local community garden since I don't really have space or light enough to garden on the porch, though I do try. I intend to raise predominantly heritage varieties of fruits and veggies. We'll see how that goes. I don't have a terribly green thumb.

It amazes me how ignorant people are of the things they consume. It's well known that MSG is bad for you, and people have been avoiding Chinese restaurants for years in order to try to avoid eating the MSG. What they don't realize, is that it's in absolutely EVERYTHING.  It masquerades under many, many different names, the most common of which, I think, is "Natural Flavors". It goes into "Healthy" "all-natural" juices and drinks, and all sorts of health food, not to mention just about everything else we eat.
I encourage my few readers to do some reading about MSG  and think about whether it's really something you want to be putting in your body. If not, I encourage you to write to your favorites brands and ask them not to use it.

Anyway, that's what's on my mind this morning. Have a great day, everyone!

Last night I felt like putting my new breadpan to use, but I didn't feel like waiting four hours to let the bread rise, so I made a sweet bread instead. The recipe I came up with was this wonderful apple bread, since I have a ton of apples on the counter. The recipe is coutesy of FoodGeeks.com.

1 cup oil 3 eggs 2 cups sugar 1 tsp. vanilla 3 cups apples, diced 3 cups all-purpose flour 1 tsp. cinnamon 1 tsp. baking soda 1 tsp. salt 1 cup chopped nuts (optional)

Directions:

Combine and set aside the oil, eggs, sugar, and vanilla. Sift flour, cinnamon, soda, and salt. Add dry ingredients to oil mixture gradually. Add apples and nuts. Bake in 2 regular loaf pans or 3 foil loaf pans for 1-1/2 hours at 300°F. Cool 10 minutes in the pan. Sprinkle with sugar, if desired.

I also sprinkled some Nutmeg into it. It's pretty darn good.

Well, Ari and I have been cinching the belts ever tighter. WE're getting by, but only just. Luckily I've got a new job at the neighborhood McDonald's. So far, I actually really like it. The work is simple (and by what the other people say, I'm catching on really quick), and I get a free meal every shift, which is absolutely awesome. I think today is the first time in probably a year that I ordered at McDonald's and not off the dollar menu. It was exciting. I need to be careful, though, or I'm going to gain a few extra pounds. It's exciting to know that next month, we'll be able to pay rent without dipping into our savings. I might actually be able to contribute a little to our savings. It's an amazing thought. Of course, Ari would like it if I didn't have to work at all, and while that's all very noble of him, I'm completely bored sitting around the house all the time. I'm excited to have something to do every day.

I'm also excited because one of my best friends is coming to visit from England in a few months and he's going to stay with us, potentially bringing his brother, as well. I've never met his brother before, so I look forward to it. Plus since I have a job now, I might actually be able to save enough by then to actually be able to take him to see all the sights. Things are looking up. Anyway, I have to be off. I'm going to go shoot a band's live show. Should be interesting.

I finally made my first bread! I've made several loaves of this now, and it's wonderful stuff. It's super-easy, for those of you who are intimidated by bread, and don't want to keep a sourdough culture alive.

I borrowed this from Mother Earth News, who borrowed it from The New York Times.

You'll need:
1/4 tsp active dry yeast
1 1/2 cups warm water
3 (Plus a little more for dusting) cups all-purpose flour
1 1/2 tsp salt

Find yourself a big bowl and dissolve the yeast in the water. Stir in the flour and salt until you've got yourself a nice dough and it isn't too lumpy. Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and let the dough rest 8-18 hours (the longer the better) at room temperature.

The dough is ready when the surface is dotted with bubbles.
flour a clean work surface and put your dough on it. sprinkle a little more flour over the top and fold it over on itself a couple toimes. Cover it again with plastic wrap and let it rest for 15 minutes.

Using just enough flour to keep the dough from sticking to your work surface or fingers, shape the dough into a ball. Generously coat a clean dish towel (or paper towel) with flour, and put the seam side of the dough down on it. Dust the dough with more flour, and cover it with another towel. Let it rise for an hour or two. The dough is ready when it's doubled in size and you can poke it and leave a dent.

Preheat your oven (at least 20 minutes) at 475 degrees, with a 6-8 quart covered pot in it. When the dough is ready, take the pot out of the oven and turn the dough into the pot (so it's seam side up) and give the pot a couple little shakes to get the dough as centered as possible. Cover the pot back up and stick it back in the oven for half an hour. Remove the lid and bake for another 15-20 minutes, until it's looking like nicely browned real bread.

Remove the bread from the pot, and let it cool for at least an hour before you slice it.


This stuff is totally yummy, and beautiful bread! Try it out, and let me know how it works out for you!

I figured out what to do with all those darned newspapers I had cluttering up my house that I felt guilty about throwing away. I took them to my mom's house and am now in the process of using her home office shredder to shred them into nearly-free small animal bedding, which I can always use. The stuff you get at the stores is expensive, anyway! and now I've got more bedding already than I think I'll ever use. Tuesday I should get the new camera I ordered. I'm excited. I should be able to use it to bring in a little money on the side. Tomorrow I'll find out if I got one of the jobs I just interviewed for. It would be nice to have a job again. Rent is getting harder to make every month.  Time to tighten the belts again.

The Sacrifice 9 by *AilinStock on deviantART

Last Saturday, Ari and I got together with someone we hadn't worked with before, and we did an awesometastic shoot. I haven't even posted most of my photos yet. This is one of my ultimate favorites.

I am SOOOO glad Christmas is over. Honestly. It's insane.
I'm very tempted to go to Joanne's and buy a ton of the holiday fabrics that are on sale for making reversible gift bags for next year, but I don't think I will. I am so short on cash it's not even funny. If I buy any fabrics, it will be so that I can post things on etsy to sell. I really need to bulk up the contents of my shop and get selling. I'd really love to actually bring in an income with my sewing and costuming. To do that, I need to build and inventoryand probably start getting a booth at local fairs and farmers markets.
I recently paid off one of my credit cards, and I'm thinking I should get my self back into debt by using it to start off my business and buy a ton of fabrics.
In other news, Ari really wants to move. Right now, he's planning on moving to Virginia without me and leaving me with my dad until he gets a job that will support both of us and finds a place to live. I think I'm alright with that, even though it may mean months without him. We'll end up setting a time limit, probably 6 months, for him to find a job and a place. If it doesn't happen within that time frame, we'll give up and go home. I have no doubt Ari would be able to get a job, though. I have lots of fabrics at the moment that I haven't done anything with. I suppose I should be doing more sewing. I'm terribly afraid I won't sell anything, though. I'm kind of sabotaging myself, I guess.
Last night, I was speaking with one of my friends, and we were both saying how our houses both loved chaos, so we're working out a synchronous ritual to bring harmony and order back into our homes. It should be interesting. I'm going to go out and check the dumpsters for interesting finds before the trash is picked up.

 My scoodie, as promised. :D

Also, I just joined 52_crafts which I think is a brilliant idea. I'll have to start working to produce at least one thing a week.

Does anyone around here use Etsy? Any success on that front?

I've started my own Etsy shop. It's pretty awesome so far, but I haven't sold anything. Let me know if you've used it, and your experience with it!

This was E-mailed to me as a laugh, but it got me to thinking, is it really that bad? Doesn't a home maker have a duty to make her home a comfortable place for her husband to come home to just as much as a business person has a duty to bring home the bacon? So what if it's a little quaint.

I've been really busy the last few days, and spending alot of time at my mom's to use her washer and dryer. I seem to have come down with some sort of allergy to something, so I've been living on allergy medications. It helps alot, but it's been knocking me out. Threadheads just released a GREAT video on gift wrapping. It's an alternative if you want to do cheap, eco-friendly wrapping, but don't have any cloth scraps or don't want to make re-useable bags like I did. 

 I intend to make a video tutorial on how I made my rose gift bows this year. I'll post it when I do it. I also made a medieval-inspired Scoodie, with inspiration from my medieval costuming books, and (again) Threadheads. 

I just love that show. I didn't make mine out of a sweatshirt, though. I used scrap polar fleece. I didn't do a typical hoodstyle, either. I made a medieval-inspired two-pointed hood, it looks alot like the wearer has cat ears. It's adorable. I'll post pictures later. Enjoy!

I just now opened today's newspaper and scanned the front page. Nothing interesting. Not surprising, I guess, why would there be interesting news on a monday? Flip. Second Page. ADULTS AMISS ON VACCINATIONS.
Oh Brother. Seriously. We're all gonna die! Not.
This is one of the main reasons I didn't subscribe to the paper before. This is the reason I don't watch television.
"You must have this medication or you'll die!"
"What's it for?"
"You'll die!"

The truth is, all these needless vaccinations and medications are probably killing us. I imagine that a good number of people out there as they die figure "Well, I must have missed one of those very important medicines or I wouldn't be here right now."
The majority of deaths today still occur in hospitals. That says, in my mind, that there are alot of problems with our current medical system that are being swept under the rug. It makes me angry. I really can't even talk about it anymore, it's making me so angry. So anyway, moving on!

Yesterday, I made alot of my gift bags for the Christmas gifts I'm giving. I'm making fabric bags that can be reused for most everything I'm giving. Instead of gift bows, (at least on the gifts for the ladies and girls, so, most everyone) I glued a bunch of silk roses to bobby pins, and then I tucked the bobby pins into the ribbons on the gift. Bow and hair accessory. :D
The roses were really cheap, too. I got two big bunches of them at the 99 cent only store.

Today, I also made some candy bark for a Christmas party Ari and I are going to this weekend. It was really easy to make, and REALLY tasty. It was just white chocolate chips and candy canes.
I got two bags of white chocolate chips, and melted them (Over very low heat, stirring constantly. White chocolate burns easy.)
I then stirred in 8 crushed candy canes (Ari had alot of fun crushing them up with a hammer.)
Then I poured the whole concoction onto a wax-papered cookie sheet and spread it out flat with a spatula. Ari crushed two more candy canes for me, and I sprinkled them over the top. I let it cool, then stuck it in the fridge to harden and stay out of the way so I don't eat it. When I'm ready to package it up for the party, I'll cover it with another sheet of wax paper, and let Ari break it into large chunks with a hammer, then I'll arrange them on a plate (I'm using a holiday-themed Precious Moments serving tray, that I intended to give as a gift to the family who's throwing the party anyway, and wrap it up with cling wrap. It should be good.

Ari made his brother a little memorial sculpture for the dog his brother had that died a few months ago, and he's making a Tree-Dollhouse for our neices, from a piece of AWESOME narly driftwood we found (Free!) and some scrap wood we dumpster dived (Also free!) This should be a great Christmas. :D

I necently subscribed to the newspaper, which, in hindsight, was a bad idea. I did it for a school fundraiser, and now I'm stuck with the newspaper.  Now there's paper everywhere that I feel bad throwing out and don't know what to do with. I don't want to shred an entire newspaper EVERY DAY for paper making. Nooo thank you.
It has gotten me to read the news, though.
Yesterday there was an article saying that New Jersey has made the Flu Shot manditory for pre-school age children. I think that this is absolutely ridiculous, and completely unnecessary. For one thing, I don't believe in vaccinations in the first place, I truly believe that they do more harm than good, and the science is on my side with that one. Humans have survived for THOUSANDS of years without the flu shot. Seriously. The flu is rarely even fatal anyway. It is absolutely NO threat to a healthy body, even a toddler's. Kid's bodies are designed to bounce back anyway. So instead of weakening our children's bodies with all; sorts of unnecessary medications, why don't we let things run their natural course? Chances are the flu shot will just GIVE the kid the flu anyway.

An article I read this morning was about how the attitude towards having children is changing from a positive thing to a negative thing. Many eco-activists are having themselves sterilized for the environment, their reasoning being that people are damaging the earth, so they shouldn't bring more people into it. I suppose it makes sense, but with that reasoning, shouldn't they all commit suicide?
Wouldn't it be better to find a loving partner and have ONE child, thus still making sure that the population will decline on your end of the scale? Wouldn't it be better to teach that one child the importance of caring for the Earth and not living excessively? Wouldn't it be better to raise a child that does not live to consume, and is capable of teaching others and making a change for the better? Wouldn't that be a better legacy?
I suppose that they could always adopt and do the same without bringing another life into the world, but they don't seem to be interested.
That's not to say I am against what these activists are doing. They can do whatever they want to their own bodies. I just think that it is extreme, and perhaps not very well thought-out. I would never do it. I want kids. Or at least a kid. Heck, I wouldn't mind having fourteen children and starting a clan of my own, but I wouldn't do it because it would be irresponsible.
There is also talk of giving benefits to people who choose to have themselves sterilized, and taxing people who do have children. I'm all for giving benefits to people who get sterilized. It makes sense. We could take the funds from our ever-expanding military budget.  I don't believe it would be fair to tax people who have children, though. People should be allowed to do as they please, and not be penalized for it. Maybe there should be a limit to how many children a couple is allowed to have, like in China. A two-child limit makes sense, even a one-child limit makes sense. People should be allowed to reproduce. I fear the day people are taxed for having children (in moderation, at least), or where we're required to obtain a permit to reproduce, as has been suggested in many sci-fi movies.
Anyway. That's the end of my rant at the moment. I haven't read the rest of today's paper, though, so there may be more.

So far, I'm well on my way to successfully making all of my Christmas gifts handmade, with the exception of my gift to Ari. Today, I found a video that reminded me WHY I'm doing everything I'm doing, and motivated me to do more.
It's wonderful. Watch it.
This will really give you some motivation to make some things yourself.
If you aren't comfortable letting fashions change without you, remember that you can re-fashion your old clothing to keep up! A few sewing tricks can be all you need to keep ONE wardrobe fresh for years, with very little waste.
Learning to cook and bake is another way to reduce your household waste dramatically. Don't pay for all that individual packaging. Learn to make your own food, plus, you can make it cheaper, and alot healthier (No High Fructose Corn Syrup, YUCK!)
So seriously, just do it.
 The Hillbilly Housewife (Now under new ownership) is a great resource for recipes and frugal living.
Spend some time surfing the internet for craft ideas out of household items. Today I made an apron for my dishsoap bottle when I was bored. I admit I was a little sloppy with it, but you know what? It alleviated my boredom, and it accomplished something productive in the fact that it beautified my home just a little more. and ALL without the influence or help of TV. TV really is the one great weakness in our society. Are you really going to sit there and let all those ads tell you what you want and how to think? I'm not. My husband and I have lived without cable for about two years. We do have a television, but we watch movies on it. If there's a show we really want to see, we wait for it to come out on DVD. Then we can watch it on our own time, without the ads, and all without the help of some fancy system like TiVo. Honestly, who would have thought of that?

I've decided to recycle some of my household trash into christmas gifts for friends and family. I'm going to make garden lanterns out of tin cans, Little holiday themed candle votives out of cat food and tuna cans, and stationery out of paper I made out of old newspaper. I'll post directions and pictures when I actually finish something....

I do. People move out and throw away all their lovely things. Like clothing. In my size. From stores I would never shop at and which probably cost about 2 weeks of my pay an article. Very nice. If you've never taken up dumpster diving, I do suggest it. It's fun. 

This year, I'm hoping to make the majority of my christmas gifts, with two specific exceptions. I intend to buy my husband the Firefly series on DVD, which he's been wanting (and not buying in order to provide for me) for years. Also, his older brother we intend to buy (or maybe make) a little bedside memorial for his dog who just recently passed away, very sad for the whole family. Otherwise, my Christmas list is as follows:
My Mother in Law
My Father in Law
My Sister In Law
My two nieces
My other brother in Law
and two of our close friends

Except for my nieces (which I have an over abundance of ideas for, I have no idea what I'm going to make everyone. I'm thinking maybe slippers and quilts. I don't know. I'll keep updating this as I come up with ideas.
Otherwise, my ideas for my nieces are:
~Quilts
~Mer/fairy teddy bears
~doll houses/accesories
~backpacks
~Costumes relating to their favorite disney princesses

We'll see.