weekend whimsy and whatnot

in which our plucky heroine determinedly focuses...

The ramp up to eventing season is leaving me wistful. It feels like a whole lifetime would have to arise again for those good times to be possible, but wonderful that they ever did occur is what I tell myself.

Once every two months or so, a booklet of once a week coupons from the grocery store arrives in my mailbox. Mostly not much use, for things I never buy, so the whole booklet is recycled. The coupon for this week, though, was for a pound of ground pastured beef free with a 10$ purchase! Hence, there will be meatloaf tomorrow, mostly made into patties and plonked in the freezer for easy future dinners.

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~ homage to the 5th god ~

Almost all the lost things have been found, but my box-o-blox with some of my larger lino printing blocks is still missing... so re-carving will be the fastest way to have them either turn up again, or at the very least allow me to once again have this motif, I've begun. 

Bujold's "World of the 5 Gods" books are favorites of mine (and of a number of my friends) so a while back I carved a block with dancing rats and crows, inspired by a description of embroidered 5th god regalia decoration in one of the novellas. I wanted to use that block to embellish new pinafore, but discovered the block missing. So... have re-drawn the image, and begun carving anew. The lino I picked up from I've Been Framed is excellent, fresh and soft enough to carve easily. Am thinking that also drawing and carving a corner block with the "no hands but ours" motif would be a good addition, to help make a block printed border for a summertime kerchief, once at least one of the yard square pieces of cotton lawn gets a rolled hem.

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After making so many (5) boro baskets, it occurred to me that the same layered and stitched scrap technique would be a fun way to create a hat. However, after measuring my noggin, it turns out that there are no suitable objects inside the house that are the correct circumference. Kitchen canisters are too small, and the mixing bowls are much too large. Maybe one of the smaller plastic buckets used for yardwork  Maybe a plastic plant pot that was the right size?? OTOH, while checking out the buckets, found two different sizes of rounded square containers, which would be interesting to attempt...

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Yesterday, drilled a hole in the red paring knife handle, so as to allow it to hang up over the sink to dry. Mostly the over-sink hooks work well to dry cooking utensils like spatulas, slotted spoons, and colanders (the smallest cutting board just fits as well). All my other kitchen knives are carbon steel, so they get hand dried to avoid rust, but this Victorinox paring knife is stainless, but sharpens well and holds an edge. 

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The linen fabric pieces, which at first appeared to be black, instead daylight proves are a very dark blue. Which isn't bad, but still leaves me with only the black/white stripey patchwork fabric to make a pinafore from. That robust fabric, originally a gift from Luz Clara, would really be even better as a pair of overalls. Shall instead focus my garment sewing efforts on the other three colorways: brown, teal/turquoise, and possibly indigo/denim.

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May SMART goals (x=extra)

#	THINGS MADE	THINGS FIXED	THINGS GONE
1	Rosa sketch	Bad Smell gone	greenwaste bin
2	boro thread basket	dishrack tray	recycle bin
3	boro basket 2	paring knife	-
4	boro basket 3	-	-
5	boro baskets 4 & 5	-	-
6	sharpening box	x	x
7	x	x	x
8	x	x	x
9	x	x	x

today's gratitudes -
- tools and knowhow
- mailbox coupon that was actually useful
- lino from I've Been Framed is excellent quality
- Super Supportive

Time of Isolation - Day 2137

Thursday thoughts

in which our plucky heroine makes small improvements...

This morning, after putting away the now dry dishes from last night, it became apparent that my long time method of using a towel under the dish drainer to catch extra drips was less than ideal for the crap formica countertop. Usually I remember to pull the towel out after it has done the job, which lets the counter dry out overnight as the damp dishes do the same. 

In the interest of not creating a mold farm, instead there was an Ikea excursion. They had VÄLVÅRDAD in stock, a powder coated metal catch tray large enough to (probably) fit the dish rack here. While I'd cleverly cut a piece of kraft paper the size of the bottom of my dish rack to take with to check the size, when tray and rack were in the same place it turned out I'd not accounted for the thickness of the wire legs. Fortunately, I have tools! There was good use made of the rawhide mallet and the stump; with crashings and bashings the legs were bent just enough to fit neatly inside the tray edges.

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~ very very sharp ~

Last night, inspired by this Instagram post, I finished making a sharpener for fabric marking chalks, from an old carved wooden box, hardware bits, and some new double edged razor blades (surprisingly cheap!). While my sharpening box didn't turn out quite the same as those others, it works eversomuch better and faster than scraping away at the edge of the chalk with a knife or scissors blade. The wooden box itself is at least fifty years old, maybe more, and likely came from an "import store" when I was young, and this will be a way of using it for something that will see more frequent use than tucked away on a closet shelf holding random smaller trinkets. 

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Well that was a bit of a perturbing minor memory fail... One of the several times living in the Lexington house with friends, the year after the Allston household broke apart, some of us moved there and kept living together. I've very few memories of those not particularly happy years. At my sisters husbands class reunion, one of the men (Doug Weston) from way back then ran into her and sent his regards. I'm embarrassed to not remember him, by face or by name, perhaps he was more Gary's friend than mine??.

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May SMART goals (x=extra)

#	THINGS MADE	THINGS FIXED	THINGS GONE
1	Rosa sketch	Bad Smell gone	greenwaste bin
2	boro thread basket	dishrack tray	recycle bin
3	boro basket 2	-	-
4	boro basket 3	-	-
5	boro basket 4	-	-
6	sharpening box	x	x
7	x	x	x
8	x	x	x
9	x	x	x

today's gratitudes -
- mostly functional public transit
- when an Instagram inspiration actually works
- the stump Bill gave me

Time of Isolation - Day 2134

Tuesday trinkets and treats

in which our plucky heroine has a pleasant surprise...

FOUND!! My beloved retractable tape measure, long missing, turned up in, of all peculiar places, between the crock pot liner and the crock pot! When plugged in to start warming up (while prepping remains of last night's chicken legs to make broth for tom kha gai) noticed the inner pot was sitting all cattywhompus, so before it got hot enough to damage the plastic measuring tape housing it was back in the sewing box where it normally lived, and the broth was able to cook properly

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~ peony ~

Not in my yard, but walking (or biking) around the neighborhood there are all sorts of delights for sight and smell. Roses blooming, and fragrant wisteria... Right now the honeybees are so fond of the sage blossoms that they are loud when walking toward the front door

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I had forgotten the Haptic and Hue podcasts, when a post turned up on one of my social media feeds for their recent presentation about the Folly Cove Designers. Not only was that a treat to listen to, but now there is a lot more content for me to enjoy listening to

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As a way to supplement my earthquake shelf, ordered two new bulk food powders to try: coconut milk, and cheddar cheese sauce. it occurred to me that it might be possible to get some of the dried cheese sauce most often found in little aluminum packets inside boxes of Annies mac, or Kraft dinner. A pound bag was worth the taste test. As was pound of dried coconut milk; since it usually comes in largish cans too big for when I make dinner for one. Yes, I freeze the rest in cubes for future use, but it would be very handy to have some shelf-stable option in the pantry . 

The cheese sauce is tasty, (tried that one with rice pasta the day it arrived) and doesn't taste near as salty as the tiny packets. It will do nicely for pasta or other starch or for veggie sauce, even not in an emergency, as will the dry coconut milk, which worked out very well in dinner tonight (faux tom kha kai) Lots of substitutions but a tasty dinner anyway. Ginger instead of galingale, fresh lime zest and juice instead of makrut leaves, brown sugar instead of palm sugar, some red thai curry paste instead of fresh chilies, and the new powdered coconut milk (very easy to rehydrate by shaking 3 tablespoons in a jar with ¼ cup water. The soup was a treat, and there are two more portions for tomorrow and/or the freezer.

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Last week was the annual five days of "Making Zen": free online workshops, and Selina Ben's "Unwritten Folded Treasure Pouch" tutorial was appealing enough that it will be my next small handwork project. Combining as it does almost origami-esque folded design, and a new-to-me decorative fastening stitch, it will be another good use for small pieces of special fabrics.

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May SMART goals (x=extra)

#	THINGS MADE	THINGS FIXED	THINGS GONE
1	Rosa sketch	Bad Smell gone	greenwaste bin
2	boro thread basket	-	recycle bin
3	boro basket 2	-	-
4	boro basket 3	-	-
5	boro basket 4	-	-
6	x	x	x
7	x	x	x
8	x	x	x
9	x	x	x

today's gratitudes -
- Good podcasts to listen to.
- Lovely scented seasonal flowers, particularly roses and wisteria.
- long missing beloved tape measure found
- honeybees love the sage blossoms
- faux Tom Kha Gai soup
- finished cutting out landscape blouse

Time of Isolation - Day 2132

betcha can't make just one

in which our plucky heroine solves a conundrum...

... and removes toxic art materials from the house;  also finishes up a second boro thread basket. Now the sewing machine and the serger will have their own, and there are ideas a-fizzing for other ways to use this technique.  

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~ strata ~

Working on a tiny stitched container is incredibly satisfying, one could become addicted to making these and the resulting small squashy palm-size basket is Just Right. This project is small enough to always have one on hand for pickup work. Limiting factor will be the thin gauzy fabric for the innermost layer.

Basket #2 will have the inner layer made from pinstripe leftovers from my most recent shirt sewing project. The directional changes remind me of geological formations. The base form I've been using was probably once a mustard jar, but for years now has been holding backstock whole peppercorns, so as it is turned about during stitching, it makes a small rattling sound, softer than a rain stick.

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a stinky saga... Last night before bedtime I caught a whiff of a most peculiar and somewhat acrid scent. Early today when I sat down at the computer for a video meeting, it came back randomly, but often enough to be concerning. (Since it smelled a bit like burnt plastic/shorted wiring! it was not something to ignore.) My pal Turquoise helpfully looked up info online about "odd smells in the home" which let me know what it likely was not... 

I spent hours this morning attempting to locate what was wrong. First opened windows in each room. Climbed up the stepladder to open the attic hatch, headed over to the far end of the workroom to check the circuit breaker box, went outside to sniff around both my heat pump and my good neighbors heat pump which is just across the side yard from the living room window. Unplugged every non critical bit of machinery, and switched off all the power strips. Periodically going outside to let my sense of smell reset...

It was clear after both walking round the house sniffing everywhere, and unplugging things, that the scent was mostly in the living room . . .  I then glanced down . . . Yesterday I'd purchased some "soft-kut" linoleum substitute, a grey rubbery slab, to carve a new printing block, and had left it on a side table near the computer zone. When picked up and sniffed, et voila, the source of the horrible odor. I immediately put it outside, and after breakfast, returned it to the art store, since it is too stinky for me to want in my house!! 

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As the last of my Sulky variegated mercerised cotton topstitching thread gets used up, remembering Fabric Despots aisles of threads, from many different manufactories (not just the single display that most shops have) makes me sad and wistful. There were so many years of shopping there, from when it was a special excursion from Olympia to Portland, and then once it was a few bus transfers away. It was such a reliable source of everything sewing related, a literal warehouse of fabrics for garments, for quilting, for home decor and all the notional items needed to make use of that fabric. We will not see its like again.

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Additional impetus to the declutter and tidy plan: sorting my smaller fabric scraps by color, as well as making clear what size of scraps are worth saving. It would be useful to have a modest box for holding packets of boro basket materials, since there are additional uses for such small containers of holding. I want to experiment with a triadic option next.

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May SMART goals (x=extra)

#	THINGS MADE	THINGS FIXED	THINGS GONE
1	Rosa sketch	Bad Smell gone	-
2	boro thread basket	-	-
3	boro basket 2	-	-
4	-	-	-
5	-	-	-
6	x	x	x
7	x	x	x
8	x	x	x
9	x	x	x

today's gratitudes -
- seasonal asparagus
- dopamine hand sewing
- adorable tiny boro thread "baskets"
- Past Me cleverly ordered backup filters for the heat pump air handler. Current Me cleverly made a pull handle from duct tape to more easily remove the filter next time, as it is a Very Tight Fit.
- the Bad Smell was not the house wiring shorting out, but a package of Soft-Kut printing block, now returned to the art store.

Time of Isolation - Day 2125

weekend whimsy

in which our plucky heroine looks all around...

or at least up and down. Parts of the weekend were a treat, and parts were a trial. Successfully trying out a new to me handcraft technique, remembering the frozen Roma tomatoes, and visiting with friends online were treats. Spiraling down into dark weasel territory on Saturday night was hard; the worst of the brain weasels don't actually lie, they contain just enough truth to really hurt. Erroneous choices can't be undone, and chances noticed too late will not come again in this lifetime. The trick is to find the small joys still possible.

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~ Rosa ~

Mischa and I are gradually setting up a new Wanderhome game (our first since Steph left the bright world), building new characters and a new place to create stories. I'd only barely dipped into the world of "gaming", in a particularly gentle, interactive, non combat-driven way, when my newest friend Steph was diagnosed and C all too quickly took them away. The rough sketch above is Rosa the maned wolf, my new character. They are a peddler/trader and deal primarily in spices, dyestuff, incense, miniature bells, colored floss, and tiny shrine furnishings.

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The tiny shreds of fabric and ends of thread leftover when sewing become frelch and have apparently a magnetic attraction to caster wheels. Rather than my vain efforts to neatly dispose of them in the large waste bin in the workshop, it occurred to me that small scrap holders in the immediate vicinity of the sewing machine and serger would be a better and more direct option, easy to empty into the larger bin as needed.

Ann Wood's "Stitched Vessel" tutorial (which has been sitting in my file of patterns-purchased-but-not-yet-made for ages) seemed like it was a perfect solution. Several hours of hand stitching turned into this boro-esque thread basket. A second one is already on my work table, also using the random cabbage from assorted wardrobe sewing projects; there are so many potential uses for such appealing small containers! 

2 ½" high, almost 3" diameter
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With the weather so hot as to make actual cooking less of a treat, a glance in the fridge showed the ingredients for a sort of panzanella. Well, there was a slice of leftover bread, cucumbers, feta, salad greens and suchlike, all that was missing was a tomato... Then I remembered that there were Roma tomatoes in the freezer, intended for making another batch of Awesome Sauce! Peeled and partially thawed, it was cut into chunks and added to the proto panzanella. The tomato did collapse into shreds, but added good flavor and moisture. A hack worth remembering.

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was not expecting thrilled to see this on Saturday morning when I checked the weather for the rest of the weekend: 
Issued: 10:57 AM May. 2, 2026 – National Weather Service...
HEAT ADVISORY REMAINS IN EFFECT FROM 8 AM TO 11 PM PDT SUNDAY... 
- WHAT...Temperatures up to 91 degrees F expected. Significant cooling expected overnight. 
- WHERE...Greater Vancouver Metro, Lower Columbia River and Cowlitz River Valleys, Inner Portland Metro, and East Portland Metro. 
- WHEN...From 8 AM to 11 PM PDT Sunday. 
- IMPACTS...Hot temperatures may cause heat illnesses. 
- ADDITIONAL DETAILS...There is around 5% chance of high temperatures of 95 degrees or greater in urban areas around the Portland-Metro area. Overall Moderate HeatRisk with relieving cooling temperatures overnight. Highs will be near record breaking temperatures for this time of year.
So it wasn't a big surprise that the temperature this afternoon on the front porch was 94° F (34.5° C). Very grateful for the magic cool air machine aka heat pump.

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I've rather fallen in love with the printed motifs of this fabric, and think it would could make a very fun autumnal shirt. Rather more colorful than my usual wont, but there are almost all the colors I do wear: brown, and grey, and teal/turquoise, and blue, as well as all the rest of the rainbow, in a playful admixture of shapes that reference mid-century design.

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May SMART goals (x=extra)

#	THINGS MADE	THINGS FIXED	THINGS GONE
1	Rosa sketch	-	-
2	boro thread basket	-	-
3	-	-	-
4	-	-	-
5	-	-	-
6	x	x	x
7	x	x	x
8	x	x	x
9	x	x	x

today's gratitudes -
- heat pump aka magic cool air that falls from ceiling
- left foot less painful
- using frozen tomato as salad flavoring
- anti-weasel serum from friends
- riding my bike past the park, seeing families celebrating birthdays or other special occasions, life happening in a pleasant public place. 

Time of Isolation - Day 2123

Friday fragments

in which our plucky heroine is charmed...

Earlier this week the birdfeeders next door were spangled with goldfinches, which was such a delightful visual way to start the day.

Also rabbit rabbit rabbit for the first of May!

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~ acorn tassels~

All I ever want to be speedy is my sewing machines and internet connection) As previously mentioned, I am not a fast knitter. Some folks can bang out a Sophie scarf in a few days, this one took me a whole month of intermittent knitting. The last several days of which were taken up in creating these knitted acorn and oak leaves added to the tips instead of pom poms or tassels. It was so slow because sock yarn and tiny needles. It is fairly narrow, and long enough to wrap around my neck and tie, intended as supplementary warmth over a turtleneck, which was hard to imagine Thursday afternoon, when it was 83 F (28 C) on my front porch

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Monday my friend Poni was willing to take me on a trip to Linfield Gallery in McMinnville to see "Continuality" by artist Tammie Dupuis. I've been following Tammie on social media for years now, she is one of my artist heroes. Highly skilled in multiple art forms and thinking deeply about what she intends to communicate using those skills. It was wonderful to see the actual pieces, which are so much stronger and more resonant in person than in tiny pixel images online. Rather like the difference between an LP and a live concert. I was particularly taken with the "Counting Coup On Curtis" series of portraits, which combine beadwork and mixed media in a unique way that really needs to be seen in person.

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Eeee!! new Becky Chambers coming this autumn!

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"Acorn Cottage Crafthouse"could be a good name for Discord server, I need to look up how to start one...

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May SMART goals (x=extra)

#	THINGS MADE	THINGS FIXED	THINGS GONE
1	-	-	-
2	-	-	-
3	-	-	-
4	-	-	-
5	-	-	-
6	x	x	x
7	x	x	x
8	x	x	x
9	x	x	x

today's gratitudes -
- goldfinches first thing in the morning
- pad see ew
- Tammie's artwork is amazing, impressive, and inspiring 

Time of Isolation - Day 2121