Happy 2012! and some cool but unposted projects from 2011

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!! 9 days in but that's definitely still new!

Well, I've been away for a couple months but that's no surprise, right?

I guess Nanowrimo really used up my writing juices for awhile. But I'm getting back into it, updating my journal, finally responding to my letters and last but...probably not...well, maybe it is, least...this blog! It occurred to me that I did a lotta stuff last year that I totally intended to do a full on post about and never quite did. My apologies, you're missing out and it's all my fault.

Let me know if you would like a more detailed post of any of the following, and I'll be happy to oblige.

I made a nifty thrifty little purse using half a cloth place mat and a long length of ribbon. Easy-peasy.

Love the colours. And the adorable clasp.

Foodwise, I made my first (and second) turkey in 2011. It was delish and now I feel all empowered with this new ability. I'd recommend always brining one's turkeys. Unless you're going to deep fry it, now that I'd like to try next. Noms.

Not the greatest photo, but the only one I have.

 I also made second place winning apple cinnamon rolls! Complete with whole wheat flour and deliciousness!

 And a first prize winning Pumpkin Pear trifle, my own recipe. This photograph is terrible but it's better than the other terrible photo I took. We were in a hurry to get to the baking contest at the church and a rushed photo is generally never all that great.

Crochet wise, I made a scarf and two cutie beret-style hats, which I unfortunately haven't taken pictures of. The scarf I already gave away as a Christmas present, foolish me. But I also made this awesome tea cozy, isn't it great!? I didn't have a pattern but it was pretty simple and it really works to keep my tea hot for longer!

Herbalism adventures included making tons of extracts for using in cooking and a couple medicinal ones, the ones I can remember off the top of my head include Earl Grey tea, jasmine green tea, peppermint, rose, lavender, ginger, vanilla (duh, haha), yarrow and st. Johns wort.

And herb vinegars too! A fire vinegar with ginger, garlic, thyme and cayenne pepper will knock the socks off of any cold or flu, and I made a pine vinegar which is tasty on salads and I'm considering doubling it's use as a cleaner...Blackberry and tarragon vinegars made it into my stock as well, this year. And herb infused olive oils have been very handy for making salves, salad dressings and deodorants!

oils

fresh poured salves

Making fire vinegar

The round up

 I've been trying my hand at making earrings too. Here's a couple photos of some of them. I made these with the intention to sell them, but only ended up selling one pair. I'm considering an etsy account, but maybe not just yet. What do you think of this style?

Blue and Gold

The pair I sold

Wedding earrings, get it? white lace, pearl and blue.

Well there's a lot more but time and space should be limiting me now.

Here's to a happy new year filled with even more awesome projects and good food. Got any big plans this year?

Summery Update

Summer is full of activity and adventure. It's hard to find time to stop all the fun and actually take time and record it all sometimes. I've been pretty bad with writing here and even my photo taking has been slack lately. With all my running around and picking berries, making sun tea, going to the beach and delving more into herbalism I just keep forgetting that I need to keep track of it all!

Yesterday, I picked a quart of wild black raspberries. I haven't yet made my mind up about what I want to do with them. I'll need another 3 quarts to make a gallon of wine (according to one recipe, at least) and I'm not sure if I want to put that kind of effort in. It's pretty hot out there, even in the morning! Maybe ice cream, hmm.... Got any ideas? I don't want to just eat them, after all that work!

We've spent some time at Plum Island at John's parents house. They're doing some remodeling including adding 2 decks (besides upgrading their first one). One is a roof top deck and the view is incredible!

Looking to the west south-west

East-northish

We went up to have a look before the actual deck was on, and the only way to get up is by ladders. Soon there will be actual decking and some spiral staircases. I'm really excited to see it done, it'll be some cool architecture.

Of course there's been sun tea:

 

And some very pretty flowers!

Lilies

Roses

Purple and White (Anyone know these?)

Echinacea

We went to Odiorn State Park for Independence Day

 Our group went geo-caching....

There was a tupper-ware in the crags of the rocks....

Which is really great for the pretty hikes you get to go on...

Path through arched trees

 

I crocheted my first hat! I felt inclined to go to my pastor's daughter's baby shower and thought it would make a pretty decent gift. Cheers for youtube.com tutorials!

Baby Beanie

John models the fab hat

And probably the dumbest activity of the summer thus far! *drum roll, please*.......
I made cupcakes!.......No trust me, it was a dumb idea. It was probably the warmest day of the year yet and so humid and muggy. Not only do you not want to be turning your oven on for 30 minutes, but you also don't want to be creaming sugar, beating eggs, whisking flour OR whipping whites and boiling sugar water for buttercream. At least the butter softened fast...

And they tasted good. Earl Grey cupcakes with chocolate orange butter cream.

Not to mention these fail cute hello kitty and flower decorations....

I got the recipe from Katiecakes, and made the buttercream from Joy of Cooking with lots of alterations. I kind of preferred them without the buttercream, though. The earl grey flavour was delicate but really good and the buttercream sort of stole the show. But they were still yummy. Also, the recipe is in metric, which really throws me, but you can use this handy calculator for translating it into American measurements.

We also went to Old Songs Fest, but that deserves its own post; coming soon!