Feature Blog of the Moment

I was tweaking my blog layouts yesterday and ran across this neat blog for bloggers, Leelou Blogs. Her site is focused on blog backgrounds and graphics and does so very well. She often links to scrap kits that work great for blogs, scrapbooking, and personal graphic use. I’m still looking through all that her site has to offer.

She sure does bring the ‘cute’ back to blogs! Thanks for all that you do, Leelou!!

How do you organize your crochet hooks?

One of my first crochet projects that came out well was my take on the roll up pencil case. It's completely crochet, starting with an extended section of slip stitch which forms a tight stitch, good for holding the steel hooks, and continued to crochet in sampler style. Single, half double, double, and triple for the rest of the roll. Triple holds the larger N, Q and P hooks well. I finished the edge with single crochet and even crochet an double color strand of single crochet to for the tie for the roll. I just slip my hooks into the cloth between the stitches and I've never had a problem with them falling out.

Onions

Recently our grocery shopping had gotten out of hand. Me and my husband were making the classic mistakes, going to the store without and list and going hungry. The surprising result to this folly was several bags of yellow onions piling up in the pantry. With the oniony abundance, I have sought new ways to deliciously cook them. Of course I had to do steak, onions and mushrooms. Ah, the flavor of sautéed onions and mushrooms piled high on medium rare London broil is to die for. 

I can make a great liver and onions, but for us that’s a once a month meal. It is also the catalyst that started the over buying of onions. So I’m on the hunt for great recipes.

In the Kichen again.

I baked two loaves of wheat bread yesterday. I'm out of wheat germ so my bread isn't as yummy as I like it. I used 2 cups of whole wheat flour to about 3 cups of AP flour. I'm still using the wheat gluten. I'm getting good rise and great texture. My only complaint is I think I'm putting the loaves in before they have a good rise in the pans. I score the tops but I don't seem to get any oven rise. Could it be the yeast I'm using? I'm using the rapid rise / bread machine yeast. I've got to look into it.

I'm still having problems with my hands. I have to wash my hands and disinfect every time I touch the dough. It's barely enough to keep my hands flexible.

Today is my hubby's birthday. I stayed up late last night and baked a chocolate cake. It's sitting on the counter looking so yummy. I don't know how he didn't cut a piece for lunch.

Wheat Bread

Yesterday I made some yummy wheat bread. I had a chance to work on it while my daughters were down for naps. It was the first time they were both asleep. It was nice getting my hands in the dough without worrying that I'm going to have to stop and clean up to tend to them.

I made Woman's Day cookbook's recipe for sandwich bread and adapted it for whole wheat.
I used 1 1/2 C whole wheat flour, 1/2 C wheat germ, 4 tsp of wheat gluten and the rest AP flour for the dry ingredients. I had never used wheat gluten before. I am very happy with the results. When I've made wheat bread before it's always been a dense hard loaf. These loaves came out soft. They rose well, held their shape and the grain was perfect. And the taste was great.

Because of the basic economies that we are having to take, I don't think that we will be purchasing bread anymore. Just for the taste alone, I don't think I'm going back. The only downside, if there is one is that I'm sore. I do the kneading by hand so ten minutes is a bit of a workout. Well, said that way it's not so much of a downside after all. I need to find ways to stay active and being sore tells me that I'm out of shape. Hopefully it won't last too long.

I'm curious what the exact cost per loaf is. That little project is on my task list now. I'm looking forward to doing more bread baking. All I have to do is get my girls to take naps at the same time.

Having yarn between my fingers....

Yesterday I broke out the yarn bag. It's been so long I had no idea what was in the bag. After taking inventory; which was a blast seeing all my hooks and needles again, I cast on my needles. I had to break out the book to refresh my memory. But after two casts of 20, my hands remembered what they were supposed to. I was shocked but very happy. The last time I had attempted knitting, I had flubbed badly. Now I just got to start working the second row.

I'm hoping to work on some quick projects, like knitted washcloths. I have plenty of Red Heart yarn and some yummy green and yellow striped cotton yarn to work with. The challenge for me will be learning to bind off. And to set aside time to work on it and somehow keep the kids out of it.

Speaking of kids, the little one is awake. I can hear her playing with the rattle.

Later.

Runes

I have 30 blank rounds that were cut almost three years ago. I've already forgotten what kind of wood it is as I had peeled the bark. It's a very fine grained wood which is proving to be problematic to the way I had intended to make them. I was planning to engrave the runes using a dremel. I'm not sure if I want to leave them unpainted or not.

There is so much conflicting information on the net regarding the making of runes, including which set of runes to use. I don't know if I like the ideas of redding the runes. I'm not even sure on the historical-ness of all the ritual around the runes. Despite runes being a form of written language historically, I want to know more before I start marking the wood.

I don't have an affinity to Heathenism, or to Norse and Viking legend. Which has caused me much pause all these years. Should I continue? I like this style of divination. I've have very few rune readings done. But for some reason the idea crawled in and got stuck. Maybe I should make my own set, with my own meanings.

But I did break out the sandpaper and the dremel and got to work sanding down the edges on the blanks. I still need to sand the flats and engrave and paint the runes. I did manage to get the burrs and inner membrane off the blanks. I was amazed just how fast it went using a power tool and thankful too. My baby girl woke up when I was midway through the set. So here are some before and after pictures.

BEFORE

AFTER

Links:
http://www.tarotforum.net/showthread.php?t=3389
http://www.omniglot.com/writing/runic.htm