Friday fragments

in which our plucky heroine keeps warm ...

I'm going to make lasagna tonight, as it is a cozy sort of dinner. I have been slowly cooking onion for the last few hours, there are some rehydrated mushroom in the fridge, and a bit of ground beef. Alas no cooked spinach to add a green layer, but it will still be yummy. I have some of the square rice paper sheets to try out, which should be easier than turning the discs into rectangles! Wish me luck...

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~ from barrette to brooch ~

Years ago, it was fun making and wearing hair barrettes, trying various embellishment techniques such as ribbonwork flowers, or the beaded embroidery shown in the photo above... While it has been quite a while since I'd the abundance of hair to have much use for these, their storage box turned up when clearing off a shelf in the handcraft resource center. It occurred to me that I could slip either end of a hair clip through the neckline stitches of my lopi handknit pullover; the gauge of the knit wouldn't be distorted by the very lightweight beadwork. And, another option would be as additional hatband decorations.

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Spent some time thinking out how best to create pot lid storage racks on the door from the kitchen to the workroom, and have made significant design progress. First off, drilled tiny holes in the back of the door, to find out how much internal structure supports the actual door - the framework under the door skin is only ¾" wide!! Not a lot of width to work with... but I have ideas. Fortunately there are ½" angle brackets in a box on the hardware shelf. Then it was actually sort of fun to play around with bits of things to mock up what depth would be just right to let the lids slide into place, but still catch hold of their knobs/handles... which turns out to be 2¼". The door width between the door jambs is 31". When the right sort of wood scraps turn up, this project will move forward.

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Since we are going into a bit of a cold snap, even if not what folks in most of the rest of the country will have on their plates, and likely have many nights in a row below freezing, it seems a good idea to go ahead and dig the planting hole in the front yard for the pear tree. A few days ago, after chatting with Karen, I looked at the small shovel and while it is as I recall intended for a child, it is very much shaped like a full size shovel, with proper angulation. And when I tried stabbing the front yard, it went in all the way up to the footrest. Of course! The ground is not yet frozen, well softened by the rains.

So, I used the shovel to cut a circular slice in the yard, about twice the diameter of the pear tree pot, then dug away everything inside the cut to about the depth of the pot. I just managed to carry the tree from the side yard around to the front, and slid it out of the nursery pot. It did not look at all root bound, which is good. After much additional effort, I moved most of the loose soil back in around the baby pear tree. Now I am truly worn to a ravelling, but hopefully baby tree will have a better chance of surviving the freeze, and be ready to begin adapting to its new home come spring.

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January SMART goals (x=extra)

#	THINGS MADE	THINGS FIXED	THINGS GONE
1	blood orange marmalade	bike headlamp	yard waste bin
2	heraldic enamel	passport photo	recycle bin
3	crayon roll	crystal necklace	recycle bin
4	xp2 undies	pattern longjanes	-
5	-	passport applied for	-
6	x	pear tree planted	x
7	x	x	x
8	x	x	x
9	x	x	x

today's gratitudes -
1. my former beaded and ribbonwork barrettes can have a second life as neckline or hatband brooches
2. did I already mention the truly excellent clothespins that Acantha gave me a while ago. Not only are they stainless steel rather than plastic, but they grip really tightly, much more effective than the plastic ones I had previously.
3. managed to get the pear tree planted before the really cold weather hits

Time of Isolation - Day 1646