Mid-January Miscellany

Brrrrr it's been a cold month!  But of course it is January in New England so I guess that's to be expected.  At least we haven't had any major snowstorms (yet....knock wood), unlike last year when we were having one blizzard a week for what felt like months on end.  

So I've been making lots and lots of homemade soups.  It's getting to the point where I can no longer eat canned soup because it tastes so gross and doesn't have hardly any veggies in it!  We've been really into homemade chicken soup lately, made with a grocery store roasted chicken that I boil till it falls apart.  That's when my sweetie pie steps in and removes all the bones and skin for me.  Here he is in action, with our very pesty helpful Sagan offering to assist dad with the meat.  "Ai can haz some pwease daddy??"

Peeps was in the kitchen too, of course, giving me the super cute look in the hopes of getting some chicken dropped her way.  "Ai can haz?"

"Can we hep?  We can hep! Pweeeeeeease????"

The Seahawks were in the first round of playoffs on January 10, so I couldn't resist making a small batch of blue & green cupcakes!

And grabbing a bottle of Seattle's Jone's Pure Cane Soda, green apple flavour.

My friends were asking me if I was going to make another batch of cupcakes for the January 18th playoff, so I did.  If you are a superstitious sports fan, you will understand why they asked and why I did it.  They played like chumps the entire day till the final three minutes when they managed to not only pull ahead, but then win in overtime.  Guess I'll be making cupcakes again for the Superbowl.

And I got my no sew blanket done and it came out so great!  It took way longer than the hour the instructions said.  It was a lot of measuring and pinning, not to mention all the cutting and tying.  I don't think I'll do another one but at least I can cross this off the 'crafts to do' bucket list.  It's sooo soft and warm.

Just some dustings of snow which make for pretty pictures as long as I don't have to shovel my way out of the house, and wait for the plow to show up.

Snowing while the sun is out!

But later that day it clouded up and and kept snowing.  The big fluffy flakes were pretty to watch.

Oh this was funny.  One Thursday night after hubs got home, he got a text from his youngest son with a picture.  He hands his phone to me and says, 'I can't see it...it looks like a truck?'  (we have very basic phones with tiny screens).  I laughed and said, 'I think it's you!'  Then it got posted to my Facebook timeline by my stepson's girlfriend.  She snapped it that afternoon as she was on her way home from college classes and happened upon Russell on the same highway.  Such a good boy, staying in the far right lane.

And finally, a beautiful early morning waning crescent moon on the 16th.

Candles, Custom Work & Colouring

I suck at candle making, I really do.  I tried it out west....I was so enthusiastic and bought tons of stuff.  I figured how hard can it be?  Well as it turns out, for me, it's hard.  I got rid of all my supplies long before I moved.  Last year, my friend Tracy told me she had a bunch of empty decorative tins she was going to toss out unless I wanted them.  Being the King Moonracer of Misfit Craft Supplies, I told her I'd give them a good home.  

Wasn't really sure what to do with all those tins, but I figured how hard could it be to pour wax inside and make candles?  It's basic enough....doesn't require a lot of technique or understanding.  Got some wicks, wax pellets, a candle thermometer and a melter/pourer.

My first attempt was a little rocky.  I cooled the tins in a pan of cold water with some ice cubes.  It was at this point I discovered that the tins aren't watertight.  Water seeped up the edges and caused the wax to separate.  I had to pour the water out of sides after they were completely cool.

So the next attempt was by keeping the tins in the pan on wax paper.  This time I only poured them about half way full, then I took them outside to set up in the icy cold air (it was about 20).  That worked a bit better except the wax leaked out the bottom around the edges but it scraped off pretty easily.

This time I decided to put some shells and beach glass on top of the first hardened wax.  I was afraid that the top layer would melt the bottom, causing the treasures to be forced to the bottom.  So instead of bringing the cooling tins inside, I brought the melted wax outside and that worked well to keep the first layer from liquifying.

It was snowing by the time I finally brought them in.  This is what the treasure ones look like with their lids.

And without the lids.  I think they came out pretty good!

Then I robbed some tea lights of their wicks and glued them onto some shells, then poured wax in them.  The two smallest shells have been painted with metallic paint and I don't know how safe it will be to have hot wax or an open flame near it.  Time will tell.  

Then I decided what the heck....why not just use up all the wax since I have the tins since the weather is cold?  So I spent over four hours one afternoon melting, pouring and setting about 12 or 13 more tins' worth of treasure candles.  They set up so much faster when it's 25 degrees out. 

A wolf charm surfaced when I was reorganizing all my beads so I made this necklace for my bff Shelly.  She picked the length and the colours.

The Creatures of the Salish Sea colouring book had also just arrived and the pictures were large enough to be quick workups and there were only about 8 pages in it anyway (since the book was designed to be easily completed in the Victoria Clipper's nearly 3 hour journey between Seattle and Victoria), so I did it up one afternoon.  Mine took a little longer than 3 hours because I had to google exactly what each animal looked like and attempt to replicate it with the crayons I had on hand.

Pardon the flash reflection at the bottom....I was in a hurry to shoot and upload these pics.

I rarely work with crayons these days so it was nice to use them again, although I notice they are definitely not the quality we had in the 70s.  I really don't remember the wax flaking and stickiness of them at all.

I have another colouring book of Washington State history and symbols, which is also geared for kids and is another one that I finished in just a few days.  I am using crayons and Crayola brand coloured pencils (usually I use the higher quality Prismacolour) on this one.

I think what strikes me most about this particular picture is the grin on the girl's face.  All I can think about is, 'Girly, you are in for the hardest few months, possibly years, of your young life.  You're gonna have that smile wiped right off your face in the first few weeks of this journey,'  I realize the illustrators had to make the book upbeat for kids, but seeing this girl look like she's having the time of her life on the Oregon Trail is a little disingenuous when you know the history of the hardships faced by the pioneers on their trips west.  

Alcohol Ink Crafts

As featured in another post, I treated myself to 4 packages of Tim Holtz Adirondack Alcohol Inks. There are three bottles per package, so 12 different colours total.  A very nice mix. I've been dying to try some of the crafts I've seen on Pinterest, like alcohol ink on glass bottles.  I don't really have a link to offer because working with this stuff is fairly self explanatory.

It's very easy to work with....a little bit goes a very long way.  I simply dropped a little bit on the bottle and then blew on it to spread it out a bit.  It dried very quickly.

Then I broke out the shrink plastic, both regular clear and the 'ruff and ready' kind that is cloudy/textured on one side.  I cut my squares/rectangles, and punched a hole at the top, then added the ink.  I did it on both sides of the ruff & ready to see how it would come out.

There they are, shrinking in the oven.

And the final results.  I like the way the ruff and ready looks when the ink is used on that side and viewed through the clear side.  Using it on the clear side is OK, but it can't be seen well through the ruff side.

One more bottle for the day.  OMG so PRETTY!!!!!!!

Next, I grabbed the only two unused white candles I have in the house and dripped the ink on them. Then I used cotton balls to dab and gently spread the ink.  That rainbow one originally started out as just different coloured stripes dripped down the sides in a spoke type pattern but it just didn't look good so I kept dabbing and adding ink as needed till it blended.  

Oh the possibilities are endless now!!!

Treating Myself

I did fairly well at my craft shows this year, which was nice!  I'd been scrimping and saving for awhile and was finally able to do a little bit of retail therapy and treat myself to some fun and necessary stuff, like a new plastic power dome for the NuWave Oven since the old one cracked and was being held together with Spell-O-Tape strapping tape. They've FINALLY come out with one that's allegedly indestructible.  Time will tell.  It should be noted that it's been ages.....years even....since I have been able to treat myself like days of old when I used to get a generous Christmas bonus.  I was torn about doing it but Russell encouraged me to treat myself for a change.

I am not crazy about paying tons of money for shoes and clothes, but the only walking shoes that fit me are Saucony and they are rather pricey.  I do a lot of walking and my current shoes are completely worn out.  The fact that the new ones are purple and blue took the sting out of the cost.

Have I mentioned how much I love beaded cross stitch and celestial designs?  No?  Well I got some kits....2 are still on back order.

I love the look of resin jewelry so I got a starter kit to check it out.  Seems like it has a lot of possibilities!!!

My Seahawks made it to the post season again this year so I had to get this tie dyed shirt to wear for the playoffs as I've practically worn out the shirt Rhonda got me last year.

Russell loves the show 'Gold Rush' so I got him a panning kit for his birthday awhile back.  We just don't really have anywhere to use it around here because this area isn't known for gold.  Then one of my friends posted a link to purchase pay dirt that is guaranteed to have at least $300 worth of gold. We won't even attempt this till spring when it gets warm out.  It was only $30 so I thought I'd give it go.

This is my new computer which I'm still getting used to. But I spent New Years Day conquering my fears by loading and using all the things that I use almost daily:  SD card pictures, the external hard drive and my basic photo editing program.  It has some quirks, but I'm working on figuring it all out. My bookmarks on Chrome were all recovered without issue and that was more than half the battle. The mouse is a little bit wonky, and that's probably my biggest complaint.  But the machine is very lightweight and thin, which is a huge plus.  My old one is in the back room....I can't bear to get rid of it yet, although everything's off the hard drive.  I can't close the lid or else it will completely break apart.  I have to say how pleased I am at the drop in price since the first one I got in 2008.  This was half the cost and my friend Glenn did all the set up and scans and updates for me.  I will say that this new one has a very frustrating touchpad and mouse that gets stuck constantly and then zooms around and starts opening up links and crap on webpages.  It's kept me from wasting as much time online all day because it pisses me off so much that I just want to hurl it across the room.  I am going to have to pick up an external plug in mouse because this one is driving me batcrap crazy.

I lost out on a marble collection on ebay on Christmas Day and I was pretty crushed.  We both were actually...I was the only bidder when we went to bed and then I got sniped when the auction ended at 3:00 am when we were sleeping.  Russell wanted to set the alarm for 2:45 so we could check the status but I didn't want to get up in the middle of the night just for that.  So I did a couple of inexpensive 'buy it nows' and purchased these. The large bag in the center are all crystals, which were always my fave.  Some people call them 'clearies' but I always knew them as 'crystals'.  The baggies all around contain some very unique pieces.  Some contemporary, some regular boring cats eyes, but also quite a few unique marbles including Bennington clays and one that is unglazed and still rough.  Either that or it was found on a beach.

I discovered that there are some sellers, unfortunately from China, on ebay who sell high quality charms and beading supplies for far less than any of my bead catalogs.  I took the opportunity to stock up on items that I have run out of over the past couple of years.  Bead spacers, gears, wings, sea themed and celestial charms.

Amazon.com is so much more than just books, music and DVDs.  I had no idea I could get so many craft supplies, and a lot cheaper than on other websites and/or in stores.  One of my friends sent me a bunch of tins last year and I thought they'd make cool candles so I got some wax and wick to give it a whirl.  More diamond tip drill bits for drilling through bottles.  Liquid silver gilding, and alcohol inks that I've wanted for awhile but never bought due to the high cost.  

Back in 2005 when I went to Victoria, I picked up a pink shirt that said 'Victoria Clipper Crew' and have pretty much worn it to death.  It's so faded and beat up that it's one of my summer sleep shirts. I realized that I wanted a replacement, and being far away from there, I knew the only way would be to try and get it online.  Unfortunately they don't have a page for their gift shop, only a list of stuff that's on the ship.  So I called them up and asked if they still sold the Crew shirts and they said yes, but not in pink just dark blue.  I don't care, I just wanted one!  I decided to get a colouring book too, even though I wasn't sure what was going to be in it, but it was only $2, so I added it to the order.  

My last  'treat' showed up yesterday afternoon!!! I ordered myself a 'no sew blanket' kit.  But not just any design, a Seattle Seahawks design!  I was cruising around online looking for a Hawks blanket but I just could not find them in a fabric or style that I liked.  I have nice, warm, comfy 49ers and Mariners blankets, but the Hawks ones weren't nice at all, especially for the price.  But then I stumbled on a link to the Ben Franklin Crafts in Monroe, WA Facebook page, who was selling the 2 pieces of comfy fleece fabric in kit form.  I am hoping that I am able to make it before the Hawks play Green Bay on Sunday.  The instructions says it should take an hour, so I'm guessing it'll take me at least two or more.  

Yes, I think I did quite well in the 'treating myself' department!  You just have to indulge sometimes.

The Shacks at Long Beach

As I was leaving Long Beach, I spotted a swan floating out in the Bay.  It was a surprise.  

Across the street from the parking lot are 3 old, boarded up shacks.   Very picturesque.

One last pic before I headed back home.

The haul was pretty good....mostly teensy chips, but I will take them!