Another Absence

Hi!  The weather has been so depressing here lately that I haven't been motivated to do much other than cook and sew and crochet.  This is why last week's Links of the Week have come out today (and have last week's date on them).

I have finished my friend's birthday present scarf, and have to finish edging it, then block it, then send it.  The copies of my thesis that I had bound weeks ago are still sitting on the floor behind the couch waiting to be sent.  My gnome picture that was the stitch along at Feeling Stitchy LAST month, is still going (I even finished a whole flower yesterday), but I have realised that the beads we got at Spotlight last week are too big to use for everywhere I wanted to put a bead, so when Mum goes to the hospital for x rays (her doctor thinks she might have arthritis!) on Monday, I will tag along and pop into Spotlight again for some smaller beads.

I made a recipe from World of Cake that, if I had followed the instructions properly would never have worked (please people, check your quantities before recipe books go to the printer!) because it listed 1c of flour for about 3 or more cups of liquid, and assumed a bread-like dough would result.  Three extra cups of flour were, luckily, in the cupboard.  I made another recipe from that book and it turned out fabulously, so I stand by my claim that the book rocks.  I made this (delicious!), and also these (best chocolate chip/chunk biscuits ever!).

And today I am listening to hours of podcasts, broken up by listening to Bjork.  I will try to be better about posting more regularly again.  I was doing so well, too!  What are you up to?  Is anyone reading this enjoying the freezing weather here in NZ?  I'm sure we could amuse ourselves by asking everyone we talk to how many layers they're wearing (thermal singlet, t shirt, two jumpers, two pairs of pants, socks, thermal socks,...  does a wheat bag count as a layer?)!

Links of the Week - August 6

Craft:  A Boy's Best Friend...  at Feeling Stitchy

The moment I read the title of this post I thought of the song "A Boy's Best Friend" By the White Stripes, for which the last line is "A boy's best friend is his mother or whatever has become his pet".  That's not what this embroidery is about, but I'll have that song playing in my head whenever I think of Hitchcock for a while now, I'm sure.

Steampunk:  Mad Hatter's Tea Party at Geek Crafts

Usually steampunk is very...  punky.  But this is beautiful whether you're into steampunk or not.  And I am.  So it's extra beautiful.

Science:  Facial Recognition at Io9

Yes, I have sneakily popped two links into this one entry.  The first is all about how facial recognition software could allow facebook to invade your privacy even more (or allow people to use facebook to invade your privacy themselves) and the second is about a neat phenomena that means that we don't process oddities about faces when they're upside down.  Both are interesting to me, despite my having studied this stuff for my masters.

Recipe:  Sugar Plum Crepes with Ricotta and Honey at Smitten Kitchen

Does anyone need any convincing to go and check this out?  No?  Good, I will tell you a little* story instead then.  We had an amazing plum tree at our old house.  Every year about Christmastime we would have a glut of plums, they would be tart when not quite ripe, then sweet when ripe, then rich when a little overripe, but edible at all three stages.  When we moved, we thought it would be okay not to take a cutting or any plum stones because my uncle (the one with the puppies) had lots of little baby plum trees on his farm that we'd given him, and he'd just dig one up for us.  No luck - he lost them (it's a farm, it's big!).  But I bumped into our old neighbours recently and they say the plum tree is still there, and the new owner is lovely - she'd be happy to have me call to collect a few plums to grow a new tree from.  So there is hope!

Art/Webcomics:  The Final Episode of FREAKANGELS at FREAKANGELS.com

I can't read it.  I just can't.  It can't be over.  I hate Warren Ellis.  I love Warren Ellis.  Waaaaahh.

 Art:  Keep Calm and Carry On...

(Wait, what?  That's not right...)

*Since when have I ever told a little story?

Links of the Week: July 30

Amazing Animals:  The Christchurch Goldfish at NZ Herald

I saw this on the news last night and thought it was so cool.  It's great to see a story come from Christchurch that is about something good happening, and apparently this story has been picked up world-wide.  See?  People do like happy news!

Libraries:  Paying Kids to Read?  At TVNZ

The happy news continues!  In an effort to enable kids to continue using the library, New York Public Library has decided to wipe $1 worth of fines from a child's account for every 15 minutes of reading they do.  They say that this will help 'in these hard economic times' (why isn't there an acronym for that yet?  ITHET?), which is good, but I'm pretty sure not fining them at all would be an alternative.  Like our library!

Music:  Noel Gallagher's New Song at NoelGallagher.com

When Oasis split, half of me burst into tears and the other half said "it won't last, you know how crazy those two are".  Now each of the brothers have released music with their own bands, and I still have that voice saying Oasis isn't over forever.  So, while I continue thinking that, here's Noel's new song :-)

Craft:  Solid Perfume Pocketwatch at Design*Sponge

This is such a great idea!  I love how the author introduces the post with a statement about her lack of feminine beauty.  I looked around the rest of her site and am surprised, because her site is so beautiful.  I love when people are oxymorons.  But I digress; I really would love to make this, I think the fragrance would be just as pretty as its presentation.  So that's going on the 'one day' to do list!

Recipe:  Risotto Balls at World Kitchen

We don't like mushrooms in our house, but I tried a risotto ball for the first time at a friend's party not long ago and am desperate to try to make some myself (the party was catered, so I can't ask my friend).   I love World Kitchen, and am so glad I found the show shortly after I came back to NZ in 2009.  Mum and I agree that a lot of the appeal is the attitude and smile of the presenter.  She is always keen to try anything - whether it be eating a snail, or trying to make baklava - and no matter the outcome she laughs and has fun.  A great example to live up to!

Art:  Wall Tentacle

Links of the Week II

This week I found six links, but two are almost on the same topic, so it's not really cheating...  Really.

Craft:  Scientifically Accurate Trilobite Sampler

I had never thought of trilobites as a subject for needlepoint before seeing reference to this post on geekcrafts, but they are going on my list of things to do (after the embroidery, longstitch, another three canvases, knitting, crocheting...  I really have to finish something soon, or I'm going to go crazy!).

The Rapture:  10 Recent End-Time Predictions that Didn't Come True (D'uh)

Well, even with all of the confusion of the exact time the world was going to end on Saturday, by now I think it's safe to say it didn't.  But that crackpot guy who made the prediction shouldn't feel too bad, he's not the only one who got it hilariously wrong.

Literature:  And the Nebulas Go To...

The Nebula awards have been announced and it's time for every science fiction fan to add to their 'must read' list.

Game:  Bloxors at Miniclip

There are so many addictive little games on the internet.  This is one of them!  I just refound the game, and can't remember where I got up to...  I'm going to have fun figuring that out.

Archaeology:  Robots and NASA help us find out more about Ancient Egypt!

A robot with a 'micro snake' camera has been sent up one of the shafts inside the Great Pyramid to look past the door that stopped the last robot in 1993 (I remember how excited I was then!), and have found hieroglyphics that might help us figure out why the odd shafts were built.  And, with one mystery possibly solved, another (up to) 17 pyramids and even more tombs and other buildings have been rediscovered by a NASA satellite.  I hope they keep them buried, at least until we learn to bloody look after stuff!  BTW, Zahi Hawass is awesome!

Links of the Week

I go to so many brilliant websites in the course of my internet ambling, so, in order to educate you all on the brilliantness out there, I am going to sum up my week with five great links (this is for last week because I only decided to do this yesterday)!

Recipe:  Mughli Chicken, Nigella Lawson

I've been wanting to try this for ages, and finally did this week.  We omitted a few things (namely cream and slivered almonds) but found it a lovely mild but flavourful curry that I think I could eat at least once a week.  We are huge fans of sultanas in savory food, so this really hit the spot!

Craft:   Carry Me With You, Jenny Hart

This is so pretty, I think someone's going to get these for Christmas...  Just don't know who yet!

Competition:  Not Martha

Not Martha is celebrating her blog's birthday month with a new prize every weekday!  Go win you some swag!

Spoiler:  The Plot of Monsters Inc 2, Io9

Monsters Inc is my favourite animated movie, hands down.  I went through a phase of watching it at least once a week for a few months.  I like Nemo, I like Toy Story, but Monsters Inc is my absolute favourite.  I am nervous for the sequel because sequels are usually not at good as the original, but I'm willing to give it a chance!

Geek (craft):  Trilobite Friday Roundup

Who knew how many gorgeous things you could make with trilobites as your inspiration?  I'm currently downloading the free patterns from the first one!

Mum's Birthday - Part Three: The Present

This is (finally) the last installment of the Mum's Birthday series (lol).  My mum loves butterflies, so much so that her bedroom is becoming festooned with butterfly pretties.  I thought I would add to that, but didn't know how to make something very special.  I had been collecting butterfly pictures from the Graphics Fairy, and finally settled on this one:

Pretty right?  But not exactly colourful.  So not something to simply print out and frame.  In a flash of inspiration I can only credit to the muses smiling on me (I haven't ever seen anyone do this before), I decided to buy a small painter's canvas, paint it, stencil the image onto it, then embroider it.  I didn't even know if it was possible to embroider painter's canvas when I bought it, but I never let silly things like impossibility stop me when I think I have a great idea for a surprise.  So, while the ladies fingers baked, I printed the image, used a lead pencil to colour in the back of the image then trace it onto the canvas (a technique for transferring images for embroidering that I learned here but altered to use a lead pencil), then painted the background:

I left the butterflies unpainted because I planned to applique some pretty fabric scraps, and didn't want the paint showing through them.  Next time I will paint further over the boarders of elements that will be appliqued, so that placing the fabric cut-outs need not be so exact.  I found I couldn't see the pencil marks well enough, and so traced it on again (using two reference points and pins to get it in the same place), as you can see in the picture.

Next I embroidered the thistles.  Because they were already painted, I needed only back stitch as if around a patch of satin stitch - the outline, thorns, thistle flowers.  I added a few French knots to be emerging thistle flowers.

The most difficult part of this process was putting my signature on the bottom.  I forgot about the wooden frame and signed in pencil just a little too low and had to pass the needle through at a terrible angle to avoid blunting it on the wood.  The picture may not show the detail very well, but you get the idea of how the embroidery creates a three dimensional effect.

Lastly, I tackled the butterflies.  First, I tried to simply pin the fabric onto the canvas, but it moved too much.  In the end I tacked the wings and body pieces onto the canvas with dressmaker's thread.

That's a piece of fake leather (the surface splits like anything!) and some shiny fabric left over from an old ball dress.  The white butterfly's wings are scraps from a project Mum did years ago.  After sewing the body with dark brown thread, I sewed around the edge of the wings with satin thread, added French knot eyes, and feelers.  I then made a design for the wings and used the same technique as above to transfer them onto the fabric.

This is (a terrible photo of) the finished product.  Although the photo is a bit blurry, I think you can see what I mean about the three dimensionality the embroidery thread created on top of the painting, and how it is emphasised by the material placed on top.  Anyone with keen eyes may notice that it turned out a little different to the original, with the most obvious example being the designs on the wings.  But I altered it to suit the medium and the colours (too much of that pretty salmony colour would have been ugly), and because I think my wing designs are prettier!

What do you think of it?  I haven't seen anyone else do exactly this before, though it is a fabulous way of creating a beautiful (if I do say so myself!) and very colourful image that is inexpensive (the canvas was from a $3 shop, the fabric was scraps, and most of the embroidery thread was from Mum's collection), and doesn't need framing.  Time will tell how dusty/faded it will get.  Mum loved it and is now inspired to do her own (which, with her permission, I will post on here once it's done).  I'm so happy with how it turned out that I am making one for myself too, and I think I have figured out what mine will be, but will wait until it's finished to announce it!

Knitting

I started knitting a scarf while I was still living at Grafton doing my undergrad (so that would be...  2004?) and got to about two thirds or three quarters of the way through the pattern I had made before other stuff became more important.  Since then it has been sitting in a bag under my bed, in my wardrobe, or on the couch waiting to be finished.  Last week I got it out again and Mum and I figured out where I was up to.  Unfortunately, I've lost the pattern I made, except for a portion I have printed.  Fortunately, that's all I really need, as I remember intending to simply finish that portion, and then repeat what I have at the other end to finish it.  I wasn't going to post about it until I had finished it (and so won't put a picture up yet), but I really wanted to share what I have literally just found online and what will definitely be my next knitting project.

I want this yesterday.  It's an awesome-looking DNA double helix scarf, and the creator has been kind enough to publish it online for everyone to try.  I don't think I'll use the same colour (it's a great colour for a guy, but I think us girls can get away with brighter more fun colours in scarves), but I may change my mind.  Anyhow, I can't wait to try it, and as it's suddenly a lot cooler (at least in the mornings), I can happily sit and knit while watching the breakfast news.  If anyone has suggestions for colours, feel free to comment!  And if I find it easy enough, and you supply the wool, I'd be happy to make one for anyone - it's something to keep me from baking more cupcakes!

AMENDED:  I noticed the link didn't work...  I don't know if that just happened or if it was always wrong, but it's fixed now.

The Kitchen Table

Just before Christmas I decided to renovate our 'dining room' in the only way a renter can - by moving furniture.  We have two bookcases in our lounge/dining area and I moved one over behind the kitchen table so that all of our cookbooks and magazines have a home.  That meant moving the table too.  To cut a long day of moving furniture around on my own (freaking out because I didn't think I'd get it done before Mum got home from work) short, we ended up with more space and better organisation.

BUT I wasn't satisfied with that.  Oh no, I had to go one step further and decided that I should paint the chairs at the table because they looked a bit old and beaten.  Because this blog wasn't originally going to have craft projects, I didn't take a before photo of our kitchen table.  Sorry!  But because my camera (read 'my mobile') is a bit less than great, I don't think it makes all that much difference.  They were painted a kind of shiny, easy-clean, white that was fine when they were first done (Mum did a great job).  We decided on a sunny buttery lemon colour, and ended up getting Hagley Park from Dulux (for some reason on the website, this looks kind of peach...  but it's not).  It took me two weeks to finish them because each needed two coats, I didn't have a bench to put them on and so had to use my lap to prop them up, and because we had issues with paint brushes.  But now they look lovely!  They just need new cushion covers; this is this weekend's task.

BUT (again), I'm not satisfied with it.  I want to do the table now.  We were in Albany a few weekends ago to get the material for the cushions and I spotted this in Early Settler:

 

I love this.  I don't know if you can see just how cool this is, but it's stripped back and stained or painted a kind of rustic cool gray.  They then used a big and a few small silver shiny pots, terracotta pots painted distressed gray, and leafy green plants with white flowers.  They had these ugly wicker chairs spoiling the loveliness, so I tried to chop them out of the picture.  This is now my aim.  We have two tables and Mum insists that the one in the garage would be easier to strip than the one we have at the table now, but I've just put all this effort into organising the place around it.  We shall see how it goes....