Tuesday tidbits

in which our plucky heroine gets an unexpected wake up call...

The smoke alarm just outside the bedroom chose this morning to let me know it was hungry for a new battery. Since there were no 9 volt batteries on hand, it meant an after-breakfast shopping trip. Which was also a chance to acquire a threaded wooden handle for the nylon boat hook, acquired to raise and lower the future insulated curtains on the west facing window. Imagine if you will me riding my bicycle, one basket lined with grocery sacks to prevent the end of the 5 ft dowel from sliding backwards, and the front end poking out beyond the handlebars. Must have looked rather like jousting!

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~ follow the crows #30 ~

Early this morning it was cool enough that a bike ride to the St Johns Library was pleasant. Starting my "Follow the Crows" excursions with the one painted by Carson Ellis seemed very appropriate. Am currently re-reading Wildwood to renew my acquaintance with the story and locations, and also looking forward to rambling around to find as many of the 30 crows as possible in the next few months... (This blog post comments about a few of the crows the writer found)

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Today it feels like I have used up all my earring making creativity in the last five days. That isn't true, of course. But the small wooden wall cupboard that holds my earrings is already much more crowded now. Rather than force a design, I'll continue to trust in my good  brain and gently wait a bit while tackling housey chores. (grey/taupe earrings, and a dark brown pair as well, would still be welcome) 

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After a rack of dishes gets washed, a bit of a beadwork break is in order, to start on the tiny tricolor guinea pig for Ashe. It is a lot smaller than the fox or the dragon, so might be quicker to finish. It would have made sense to pick up some more of the thin brass wire while at the hardware store this morning, but I forgot... With luck there will also be time to make some of the purple sparkly beaded dragons this week to mail out as gifts to various friends.

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August SMART goals (x=extra)

#	THINGS MADE	THINGS FIXED	THINGS GONE
1	2 Talenti shelves	Talenti shelf up	greenwaste bin
2	acorncap earrings	2nd pot lid rack	recycle bin
3	teaspoon earrings	-	-
4	glass button earrings	-	-
5	poppy pod earrings	-	-
6	red cube earrings	x	x
7	x	x	x
8	x	x	x
9	x	x	x

today's gratitudes -
- search function on blog, that let me find a precious recipe somehow no longer in my hardcopy recipe box
- hardware store had an inexpensive threaded wooden pole handle
- My friend Leslie found a buyer for her house, so she can move forward with life changes.

Time of Isolation - Day 2219

trust your brain

in which our plucky heroine woke up with a new idea...

Remember those red cube shaped beads that have been a conundrum to me for months? Dunno if brainstorming earring ideas for the last several days has been shaking things loose inside my head, but this morning I woke up  with a brand new idea for a way to combine them with other beads that wants sketching, and looking through the bead bucket for possible companion beads. Stay tuned for later today, and Trust Your Brain, it is a good one!

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~ day 6 of 7in7 ~

Well, this was interesting. My initial concept was to join the red beads together with wire, threading a single bead on each loop. That looked unfinished, so various combinations were attempted. Using 28ga brass wire from the hardware store was helpful as it remains inexpensive enough to play with. I kept combining beads in various ways, walking away to do housey chores and coming back with fresh eyes, and starting over until an arrangement felt right.

This current iteration highlights the red cube beads by surrounding them with 11/0 glass seed beads, freshwater pearls, a tiny turquoise bead at the base and a red white heart at the top. If these earrings are keepers, might buy some 28ga silver wire (thin enough for seed beads) and redo them, but for right now my goal is the freedom to use the materials I have on hand and play with them. I'm actually grateful that these uncooperative beads "forced" me to try over and over again to come up with multiple options, which is so different than the way my usual handcraft interactions occur. Usually I have a specific outcome desired, and all efforts are to bring that about. I've heard it described as "process vs project" and I'm usually more on the project end of the seesaw.

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August SMART goals (x=extra)

#	THINGS MADE	THINGS FIXED	THINGS GONE
1	2 Talenti shelves	Talenti shelf up	greenwaste bin
2	acorncap earrings	2nd pot lid rack	recycle bin
3	teaspoon earrings	-	-
4	glass button earrings	-	-
5	poppy pod earrings	-	-
6	red cube earrings	x	x
7	x	x	x
8	x	x	x
9	x	x	x

today's gratitudes -
- the creativity of my sleeping brain
- dipping my toes in the process end of the maker pool
- the postal clerk was really helpful 

Time of Isolation - Day 2218

Saturday snippets

in which our plucky heroine enjoys blue sky...

This morning the AQI numbers were good, and it was possible to see all the way across the river to the west hills. An early morning bike ride before breakfast was an unmasked treat. It is still very hot here, but better less smoke-filled air is a huge improvement!

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~ so kawaii ~

Tiny (1¼" x 2") foxes woven from beads and wire.  One is for my pal Mindy, and I think the other needs to live with Almandine...

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Any time Past Me cooks enough for several meals, Future Me wins. There are corn pancakes in the freezer, and several different soups. Dinner is easy. Later tonight I am going to poach the chicken thighs from the fridge, and make some of Hutch's Amazing Peanut Sauce to go with, and try using the frozen cilantro as a test. Cold chicken salad is another excellent summertime meal

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~ day 4 of 7in7 earring challenge ~

Some vintage glass buttons from my button basket seemed to need to be combined with the tiny pressed glass acorn bead drops. Simple, but effective and very wearable... So much fun rummaging through assorted bins, boxes and baskets full of many years accumulation of trinkets and treasures to find inspiration for more earrings.

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While at the Fred Meyers store to refill my transit pass, I checked out their paint/housey repair section... Not only did they have Rustoleum spray paint, but perzactly one left in stock of the dark bronze color wanted. And it was on sale at 35% off! My lucky day!!

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August SMART goals (x=extra)

#	THINGS MADE	THINGS FIXED	THINGS GONE
1	2 Talenti shelves	Talenti shelf up	greenwaste bin
2	acorncap earrings	2nd pot lid rack	recycle bin
3	teaspoon earrings	-	-
4	glass button earrings	-	-
5	-	-	-
6	x	x	x
7	x	x	x
8	x	x	x
9	x	x	x

today's gratitudes -
- acquired Rustoleum for mailbox renewal
- AQI is vastly less dreadful, currently at 31 (Fair) as opposed to almost 200 (Unhealthy, verging on Very Unhealthy)
- enjoying playtime created by 7in7 earring challenge

Time of Isolation - Day 2216

Friday fragments

in which our plucky heroine finds a new temporary obsession...

Yesterday was the second day of the 7in7 earring challenge, (which I just discovered late Wednesday night...) Lately I've been playing with found materials and recombinant parts of some of my older pieces anyway, so am using this challenge as a springboard to additional random creativity. When I saw these unusual acorn caps while out walking I had an idea for woodland themed earrings, added some cast and enamel mushroom charms Bill and I collaborated on decades ago and these will be just right for autumn.

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Today is day 3 of the 7in7 earring challenge... This single small silver-plate teaspoon has been languishing in my tableware drawer for over three decades, and now has a new destiny as a pair of earrings. The bas-relief of oranges has always charmed me.. The spoon was thicker than I realised, so a bit difficult to saw through, but once cut into pieces each earring blank weighed only about 3 grams, so not too heavy for comfort.Some small silvery baroque freshwater pearls turned out to be good accents to add additional movement and catch the light.

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~ found beauty ~

Blue lacecap hydrangea, seen halfway down the back parking lot stairs at Providence hospital. On my way back to the bus stop early yesterday morning, after my annual skin checkup, these blue flowers were very eyecatching. Awake at 5am in order to coordinate transit,  tired but spirit now good since my exam was all clear and the odd spot on my hand is a solar lentigo and not something dire...

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The diseased leaves on my pear trees are caused by "rust" fungus which is alternately hosted on junipers, of which there are many around the neighborhood including the far side of my own driveway (mostly in the corner neighbor's front yard). Dang! My bigger Bosc tree has some damage, the baby Seckel pear is badly hit, and the baby Shipova seems untouched. There don't seem to be any good non-chemical way to control it, and I doubt that neighbors would be keen on my removing a chunk of their landscaping...

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August SMART goals (x=extra)

#	THINGS MADE	THINGS FIXED	THINGS GONE
1	2 Talenti shelves	Talenti shelf up	greenwaste bin
2	acorncap earrings	2nd pot lid rack	recycle bin
3	teaspoon earrings	-	-
4	-	-	-
5	-	-	-
6	x	x	x
7	x	x	x
8	x	x	x
9	x	x	x

today's gratitudes -
- spot on hand is solar lentigo and not melanoma. Whew!
- neighbors moved their car, managed to harvest more elderberries
- chopped up cilantro stems and a bit of yellow onion diced make a decent substitute for green onions in Sister Gigi's Corn Pancakes.
- in the kale/bulgar/feta salad kasha makes a great substitute for bulgar in terms of texture (and of course adds tasty kasha flavor)

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Sister Gigi's Sweet Corn Cakes

4 ears sweet corn (or 2 c frozen) ½ c cornmeal or masa ½ c flour 1 t salt 1 t sugar ½ t baking powder ¼ t cayenne 1 large egg ¾ c buttermilk 3 T butter, melted and cooled 2 green onions, chopped small

If using fresh corn, cut the kernels from cobs, (you should have about 2 c) Combine all dry ingredients in a bowl, combine all wet ingredients in a bowl, mix together and add the corn and the green onions. Let rest in the refrigerator for at least a half hour or more (cornmeal will hydrate, texture will be nicer; if you use masa, might need more liquid than called for) Fry like pancakes 'till both sides are golden. serve with green salsa and sour cream

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Time of Isolation - Day 2215

wishful Wednesday

in which our plucky heroine is wishing for a different timeline...

... as I sit inside Acorn Cottage with both my air filters running and think: "this is the coolest and most healthful summer we will ever have". The light outside is the yellow-shifted color that our screens get when the late night filter is applied. Awake just before sunrise and the sky appeared a pleasant overcast cool day, until the sun rose

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~ old dog new tricks ~

Recently figured out that the small block anvil has yet another use. Being squared on all sides, it is a great help for accurately aligning brackets that need to be all the way to the edge of something that needs to attach perpendicular to the wall.  ideas. Never saw this concept elsewhere, but perhaps this small anvil is uncommon? 

This is part of gradual progress on assorted housey improvements, a 2nd pot lid rack for back of door. Yesterday cut out and glued up the layered wood support blocks, then woodfiller smoothed and sanded them. This morning marked the door and painted the blocks. Once they are securely bracketed to the door, another vintage yardstick will be cut to length and attached, and et voila the larger lids will have a better (out of the way but still convenient) home. Voila!!

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Handcraft progress: my Tabbycat Cowl continues to slowly grow as each day gets a few more rows of stitching done.  Noro Kiri yarn has such pleasing subtle variegation; Noro yarns were the first mulitcolor long shift yarn I ever saw years ago at Canvasworks in Olympia.

Laid out all the various recut pieces of bluegreen batik rayon for this year's summertime popover dress. Third time is the charm, fingers crossed it works well and hangs properly. It may be possible to add big "teacher" pockets instead of patch pockets (with care in how the remaining fabric is cut); this would be a worthwhile improvement.

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The mason jar self-watering inserts to grow pea microgreens arrived today. I grew pea shoots in trays back in 2020, and this looks to be a slightly easier way to get the same results. Worth a try anyhow...

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This was my yesterday: woke up early, put on mask to go outside in the peculiar light, poured water on plant babies, added water to the hydration station, hacked back the overgrown fern from next to the heat pump machinery (as indicated from research online it needs several feet of clearance, who knew?). Will check the air handler filter and order more if needed, also for auxiliary air filter and a new set to rebuild my homemade Corsi-Rosenthal after this current AQI uptick. I hate that we have fire season now, and barely any real summer anymore. Today another whole day indoors, attempting to remain sane by making progress on several projects.

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4am is for certain when the brain weasels are at their strongest, and not the best time to return to the bright world from dreamland. Sometimes the worst nightmares may be those not filled with active evil and direct horror, but the ones that instead are a torment of missed opportunity and wrong choices, the ones that are thoroughly marbled with waking life. A good strategy for the former is useless against the latter.

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August SMART goals (x=extra)

#	THINGS MADE	THINGS FIXED	THINGS GONE
1	2 Talenti shelves	Talenti shelf up	-
2	-	2nd pot lid rack	-
3	-	-	-
4	-	-	-
5	-	-	-
6	x	x	x
7	x	x	x
8	x	x	x
9	x	x	x

today's gratitudes -
- electricity, which runs the equipment that make summer bearable
- Past Me bought a Very Small drill press, which is just right for some tasks
- 5 flavor eggplant, so tasty. 

Time of Isolation - Day 2213

Sunday snippets

in which our plucky heroine has a moderately productive weekend...

The first thing I saw looking out my bedroom window this morning was a charm of goldfinches enjoying the various bird feeders my good next door neighbors have in their side yard. Goldfinches are sometimes migratory, so these might be traveling north, as I usually don't see them all the year round. Not only is the yellow and black coloring (of the male birds) distinctive, but the way goldfinches fly is as well, in swooping curves. They always make me smile.

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Mt Washmore and Mt Dishmore have both been conquered this weekend, and almost all of the clean laundry has been put away as well. The only good thing about the hot sunny weather is that the laundry on the clothesline dries fast!

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Last night found the correct tiny beaded dragon tutorial online, after searching for several days. It is much more complicated than the tiny frogs that are my current Advent Swap project, but I really want to make a dragon for Kestrel, and now I can. I also found a tutorial for a 3D beaded fox, which may increase my understanding of complex beaded patterns. Besides who wouldn't love a tiny fox (or a tiny dragon)?

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~ sharing is caring ~

There is a house over near one of the local parks that has several fruit trees in their yard next to the sidewalk, all currently loaded down with ripening fruit, and apparently the folks that live there want to share the bounty. Around the corner on the other side of their yard is a similar sign for "free figs". I love how they also describe the fruit, and how to know when it is ripe. Mutuality at a neighborhood level♡

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In addition to knitting just a little bit further on my Tabby Cat cowl during zoomtime, this morning also saw me file and sand the cut edges of the cut-to-size pieces of two old yardsticks that'd been earmarked for shelf edging on the kitchen storage shelves project. Am always seeking small handwork projects that don't require high focus or a lot of space, to do during online visiting. So embroidery yes, but cutting out fabric nope, etc. Smoothing and rounding off the rough cut edges was useful, and now they're ready to be attached to the shelves. By the end of the summer there will be moar storage!!

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For the first time, I had a disappointment in my Alibris order. One of the sellers misrepresented the condition of their book on offer as "Very Good [...] pages are unmarked". This was not the case - 23 pages (almost two full chapters) inside the book were chock full of underlining and notes written in ink! I would have chosen a different seller had I known that it was not as described. I have been buying used books on that interface for quite a few years, with good results prior to this. Off to the copy store and the post office tomorrow!

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Ann Wood shared about the ten year history of Miss Thistle and the tiny rag doll pattern on her most recent blog post. A very fun read!

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In the interest of creating a safer tuna salad, today I chopped up some of my fermented daikon to add texture instead of raw celery, and used Penzeys "Justice" mix for allium instead of green onion... it was quite tasty, if a bit softer crunch-wise. Plus there is the health benefit of more probiotic goodness, and the peculiar fun of hot pink pieces.

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July SMART goals (x=extra)

#	THINGS MADE	THINGS FIXED	THINGS GONE
1	15 tiny masu boxes	earrings recombined	greenwaste bin
2	black scarf hem	replace C O alarm	recycle bin
3	Brambly Hedge slip	-	greenwaste bin
4	5 more bead frogs	-	overgrown lovage
5	"Cats Invade" books	-	-
6	x	x	x
7	x	x	x
8	x	x	x
9	x	x	x

today's gratitudes-
- tuna salad with pink probiotic daikon pickle is yummy
- only need to make 10 more frogs to meet my goal of 31
- Wellington is here for a few days
- found the tiny beaded dragon tutorial online, after searching for several days. I'll need to figure out how best to transcribe it from a much too speedy video reel into a usable reference format.

Time of Isolation - Day 2196

Saturday snippets

in which our plucky heroine reconfigures a recipe...

Earlier this week, in Ann Wood's newsletter, there was a link to a recipe for a sort of asian inspired carrot and cucumber slaw with chickpeas, and it sounded tasty. My first attempt was rather too improvisational, and turned out unbalanced, with an overabundance of cilantro and garlic, and nowhere near enough cucumber. It was obviously user error on my part, so in hope of a better outcome, a quick ride to the store before the thunderstorm arrived for more ingredients was in order. This version was much improved. Following the proportions of the recipe but scaled down for a single dinner serving. Slice the cucumbers thin instead of grating them. Substitute some green onion tops for raw red onion. Skip adding raw garlic to the dressing at all. Slice up some of the fermented daikon pickle and add to the vegetables. This is a winner, and deserves to be added to the recipe file. The pink daikon ferment has turned out to be something I like very much, and that too will be added to the files and made again.

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~ it's not easy being green ~

...especially if you are this small! Today our plucky heroine learned how to make wee beaded amphibians. In keeping with my intention to use what is on hand, the bucket-o-beads yielded some suitably green seed beads, and the remains of a spool of 28ga brass wire that is probably at least 40 or more years old. Still good. The tutorial for these showed up on social media and my immediate thought was that they would be an ideal Advent Swap treat, as they are about an inch long. There isn't enough wire to make a set of 31 froglettes, but the internets tell me that the local hardware stores will be a good source. Already checked the local art store, but unfortunately they do not carry much in the way of beadcraft supplies.

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Found a few nature magazines in the free bin at the library earlier this week, so I've been gradually cutting out origami squares from the colorful pages, and now there are 62 squares enough to fold another set of 31 masu boxes to wrap another full set of Advent Swap gifts.

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This showed up on my media feed; "Grateful Dead of the Day" is a website unfamiliar to me, and apparently one can click and listen to entire concerts...UMass Amherst Spring Concert; 5/12/79; I was there. Missed the first opening act, second opening act was Patti Smith! (very mixed genre crowd that day)...

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I was amused the last time out on my bike, to find a little free library that also had a separate low-to-the-ground open bin labeled "dog tales" and filled with a nice assortment of sticks.

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June SMART goals (x=extra)

#	THINGS MADE	THINGS FIXED	THINGS GONE
1	Babs brooch	thinned apples	greenwaste bin
2	5th god lino block	add under elastic	recycle bin
3	5th god corner block	white scarf hem	recycle bin
4	enamels for John	add more elastics	greenwaste bin
5	tie-dye pillowcases	Viking bag strap	greenwaste bin
6	bead frogs	x	recycle bin
7	x	x	x
8	x	x	x
9	x	x	x

today's gratitudes -
- an unexpected visit from Mindy
- learning to make tiny frogs 
- improved the tasty 4C salad recipe

Time of Isolation - Day 2178

Third time is the charm

in which our plucky heroine makes further progress...

The curse is broken, the project that stymied my mojo has now been completed successfully. Dare I imagine that the impetus for more creative endeavors with metal and enamel may be stirring? Stay tuned... I suspect that next will be a few limoges style enameling projects, as that is the best option for Really Tiny tidbits of regalia.

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~ almost finished ~

This morning the base plate for this tiny 1" x 1½" heraldic brooch was in the pickle pot after the final soldering had been completed. The handwork that remains is all assembly. The bezel plate will be riveted to the base, the enamel will be set, the entire brooch polished a second time, and lastly the pin attached to the brooch hinge on the back, and the pearls attached to their cup settings...

~ and, finally done... ~

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Of course nothing else of note was finished today, the laundry is still on the line, and no dishes were washed or yardwork done, but given how long it has been since the beginning of the brooch project, that is a small price to pay. I did however make some really yummy chicken and bok choi stir fry for an early dinner when it got to be around 4pm and my tummy reminded me that there had been no lunch. 

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I finished carving the 5th god dancing crows and rats printing block over the weekend. It is intended as a border print, and also possibly for a scarf edging print, though for that use it will also be necessary to create a square corner block, perhaps with the sigil of the two hands and the motto "No Hands But Ours", and also for me to put a rolled hem on at least one of the squares of cotton lawn. Doing those hems may be my next bit of pickup work, being eminently suitable for not just working while in zoom meetings but also for stitching while on transit, (block carving is definitely not transit friendly).

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June SMART goals (x=extra)

#	THINGS MADE	THINGS FIXED	THINGS GONE
1	Babs brooch	-	-
2	5th god lino block	-	-
3	-	-	-
4	-	-	-
5	-	-	-
6	x	x	x
7	x	x	x
8	x	x	x
9	x	x	x

today's gratitudes -
- tricksy tiny brooch is finished
- did not run out of either propane or patience
- 5th god lino block finished

Time of Isolation - Day 2152

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

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

taxman

in which our plucky heroine has a dining table awash in papers...

but managed to ride to the post office early this morning and get each of the four Envelopes of Payment hand-canceled and photographed so as to prove they were posted today. I'll be organising the receipts and paperwork copies into an envelope labeled 2025, and very much look forward to getting my table back again!

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~ hold it! ~

Last week a recent tutorial post from @bookhou caught my eye and I couldn't wait to try making this little accordion pouch/bag. It is the perfect size to hold my transit pass and card case, and let me use a special scrap of embroidered fabric so I can enjoy it every day!

 . 
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Not sure when I'd run across information about a new podcast "In Your Spare Time". Various different writers and folks will be reading each of the blog posts that Ursula LeGuin wrote starting in 2010. There are 130 posts, so as a once a week podcast, there will be over two years of things to enjoy. I am planning on enjoying the ride...

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My sleep schedule is entirely out of whack. Am now in some sort of only sleep for about five hours or so at night, then can't get back to sleep, and end up tired all day and taking afternoon naps. Shall have to research how best to improve this; suspect that starting off by setting some kind of regular "bedtime" might be where to begin...

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April SMART goals (x=extra)

#	THINGS MADE	THINGS FIXED	THINGS GONE
1	glass button shirt	apple tree pruned	recycle bin
2	accordion pouch	tiny beaded star	greenwaste bin
3	bone acorn earrings	electric bill found	recycle bin
4	-	shirt sleeve length	-
5	-	tax papers	-
6	x	x	x
7	x	x	x
8	x	x	x
9	x	x	x

today's gratitudes -
- 4 envelopes of payment safely posted and documented
- Wrote another verse for my filk, now there are three. It might be done. Two wasn't enough, but three might be enough to go on with...
- Managed to fit all my errands, and my grocery shopping between the stormy weather. Now safe at home listening to the rain and thinking about a short nap.

Time of Isolation - Day 2106

QID

in which our plucky heroine is still slightly off balance, but improving...

Not sure what waking every three hours does to one "proper" sleep cycles, and I've never timed how often my non-alarm-driven night waking occurs. There were no nightmares last night, though. And most remarkably, in my final dream before getting up today, I dreamed I could skip! Would that it were true, as I've been peculiarly disturbed by the loss of that coordinated ability, and have tried from time to time to re-learn it.

There was also a benign verbal interchange with an analog dreamland person (who was reminiscent in ways to both G and to B) concurrent with my skipping down a woodland pathway similar to but not OCF... (it most certainly wasn't OCF or analog OCF, as it was empty of any other human people)

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~ 3 color stenciling ~

My intent had been to stencil a patch for the pocket of the new brown linen pinafore with a cave horse, just like the one that is "worn to a ravelling" and past re-use. However, apparently my cave horse stencil set has been misplaced, alas... Fortunately I did write up the process used to create the stencil, and posted it to my blog years ago. Making up a new stencil likely guarantees that the missing one will show up soon; it will also be good to have a second stencil, albeit slightly different. Before long, there will be a new cave horse patch for the pocket, just requiring a few additional steps.  

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I put up various foods in shelf stable jars all year long, as a way to have things otherwise unobtainable, or just for the frugal pleasure of storing local bounty. The few apples from the backyard tree, and the quinces from the side yard often end up as "sauce" for pantry storage, and are usually brought out as a special treat for dessert from time to time. This week, however, those jars are a necessity. Antibiotics four times a day ie every six hours, that are best taken with food, but not with dairy. The dairy, in the form of live culture yogurt, is also every six hours, on an alternating schedule. (My phone alarms every three hours 24/7 for the next week, sigh) Other than the doses that line up with mealtimes, food with pills seemed a bit challenging, as string cheese or cottage cheese are my snack of choice. Turns out that a few spoonfuls of applesauce, or in my case quince-apple sauce is both easy to deal with nocturnally, and light on the tummy. 

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Today there was also a midafternoon trip to the store to get some crackers, and Toby's Tofu Pate, which will work well for another speedy middle of the night micro-meal option. I rarely keep crackers in the house, and rarely eat soy products, so ditto for Toby's, and they are spendy for how "easy to eat" they are. I tend to forget though, how delicious they are. Somewhere I have a recipe for DIY tofu pate that is very similar to Toby's, and it is likely time to return to making my own version of "Goddess Dressing", which has completely vanished from the local grocery stores One recipe lasts me for about a week of everyday salad dressing, and is also delicious instead of mayo for use in tuna, egg, or noodle salads:

Tahini Goddess Salad Dressing

⅓ c oil 2¾ T tahini 2½ T cider vinegar 2 t tamari 2¼ t lemon juice ¾ t salt 1 T minced parsley 1 T minced chives 1 minced clove garlic (or ¼ t garlic granules)

Mix together the tahini and the oil first, to allow the tahini to be smoothly incorporated. Then mix in all the other ingredients. You can add some water at the end, if the dressing is thicker than you prefer.

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March SMART goals (x=extra)

#	THINGS MADE	THINGS FIXED	THINGS GONE
1	ruffle pillow shams	cardigan length	recycle bin
2	clothespin bag	cardigan button bands	-
3	brown linen pinafore	cardigan ribbon facings	-
4	-	planted rhubarb	-
5	-	-	-
6	x	x	x
7	x	x	x
8	x	x	x
9	x	x	x

today's gratitudes -
- homemade apple-quince sauce
- a useful and useable search box on my blog
- single use bandage scissors turned into kitchen scissors, still going strong ten years later
- the metal lid I found at Goodwill that fits venerable crock pot perfectly  

Time of Isolation - Day 2082

red sky at night...

in which our plucky heroine rides home into the sunset...

The westering sky this evening was really spectacular, painted with various colors of red, magenta, and vivid madder. Had I not been on my bicycle I'd have tried harder to capture it on camera. This week has been a good one for noticing nature. I saw a house finch perched on the salad table cages, a hummingbird just sitting in the Japanese maple next to my porch, and the goldfinches are definitely here, at least for the moment.

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~ potsticker lasagna ~

Made up my usual filling (ground pork, minced Napa cabbage, green onions, and cilantro, seasoned with tamari, ginger, garlic, oyster sauce, xiaoshing wine, and sesame oil), but set layered flattened tablespoons of filling between four wrappers in a custard cup and steamed for about 20 minutes... it cooked while I made up the rest of the filling into individual gyoza. I'd been seeing this concept in various places online and wanted to try it. Was not difficult, and results were successful as a dinner ready by the time the rest of the gyoza were formed and in the freezer... 

...but, in the future, I'm more likely to mostly continue my habit of making a large batch of individual dumplings, as once frozen they store really well, but this, while it wouldn't store well made ahead, was an easy meal to cook at the same time as doing the rest of the prep work. Next time remember to be a bit more generous with adding broth or water over the top before steaming, as the wrappers were partially stuck to the sides of the custard cup. And, while wandering online checking out the concept, also saw an easier way to fold the individual dumpling wrappers. Double win!

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Yesterday started with a kitchen crash, as while barely awake I somehow knocked one of my quart mason jars off the countertop, to shatter when it hit the concrete floor. Ugh, and alas, since it was one of my favorites, being turquoise blue rather than the more usual clear.  So, instead of continuing to make breakfast, it was necessary to find a paper sack, Very Carefully pick up the larger shards of glass, go get the vacuum to gather up as much of the smaller bits as possible, and finally with great care wipe down the entire area with damp paper towels. Do you know that tip? The damp paper towel grabs the tiniest glass fragments, the ones almost (or actually) too small to see, but after wiping the area, if you hold the paper at an angle, the bits of glass sparkle. Once there are no more sparkles, then the area is clean and safe again!

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~ simple decoration ~

Though the teal long janes were technically complete, one design detail often part of my style is to decorate hemline edges in one way or another. In this case, rather than add block printed trim, a faster option was to use Alabama Chanin reverse applique with several layers of scrap cabbage from the teal jersey fabric. One of the easiest options that came to mind was to simply trace around the edge of a thread spool in a line of dots, far enough apart to allow for stitching, and then cut away inside the dots. The tone-on-tone textured border is subtle, and, as the dots are stitched one at a time, is also flexible enough to allow for needed stretch.

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While am still wishing for the Exactly Right Sort of grey fabric for a new pinafore, there are enough much higher priority projects and garments on my list to keep me busy for months. It recently occurred to me to modify my TNT pinafore pattern into a cross back apron... as both a kitchen apron  and a workshop apron would be most useful. I'll use some of the odd greenish-grey Ikea curtain fabric (I've no idea why that is on my resource shelves) to sample the concept, and if it works as well as imagined, that will become a shop apron, and the Marimekko poppy fabric can be a somewhat more decorative kitchen apron. Use what is on hand.

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February SMART goals (x=extra)

#	THINGS MADE	THINGS FIXED	THINGS GONE
1	plaid flannel shirt	rice bags	greenwaste bin
2	23 postcards	INTERNET!!	recycle bin
3	teal linen pinafore	hydration station	greenwaste bin
4	bedroom shelves	grey felt slipper	recycle bin
5	tiger pocket	teal turtleneck	greenwaste bin
6	teal long janes	long jane borders	recycle bin
7	lots of drawings	removed 2 ferns	greenwaste bin
8	x	x	x
9	x	x	x

assorted gratitudes -
- sleep when tired. After bad insomnia, was so tired by late afternoon that a nap was essential. Set alarm for an hour and managed to wake back up and be functional.
- easier faster way to fold dumpling wrappers (not that my other way was difficult)
- Karen is going to send me a mini skein of red sock yarn to make tinyfolk hats.
- almost caught up on drawings.
- my good neighbors have several bird feeders in the side yard between our houses, which means I can enjoy the birds as well!
- the cotton lawn fabric from the Sewlarium is fabulous! Finely woven, not slubby, can be neatly snipped and torn, 60" wide and only $8/yd!!

Time of Isolation - Day 2058