23 December 2008

i don't have to do any schoolwork today

Oh, holy crap. Watched Jeopardy today:

A: This ancient vehicle was mentioned in the Beach Boys' song "Fun, Fun, Fun."
Q: What is a T-Bird?

Oh, holy shit, you are an idiot.

In other news, I made a scarf today.

scarf!

Pretty sweet, right? This was my first try at a scarf, and it was super fun to make. I am not in love with the fabric, but I really like how it turned out. It's all patchwork, front and back, and I quilted a curved line down the length of the scarf. I may add more if it seems necessary. I only brought a little bit of fabric home, all quilting cotton & flannel scraps, but I think I might have enough to make another scarf. Exciting!

I have some sweet cat photos to share, but I'll hold off until later. Stay tuned!!!

22 December 2008

so that's where i get it

"I hate this commercial. 'It's endless, it never ends.' Aaaah, words have meaning!"

[That Pizza Hut "Endless Pizza" commercial really pisses my mom off. She also regularly sends me emails with examples of terrible grammar and once sent me an email asking what the hell is wrong with my generation re: lolcats/lolspeak or whatever that ridiculous crap is called.]

i love tivo

Hey, guess what? As of 1pm or so, I am done with the Fall 2008 semester. Awesome. I opened a beer about 10 minutes after I finished because that is how classy I am. I hope you're all having an awesome day and have a great [you know] and an awesome New Year.

Ha, I say that like I'm going to be too busy to update my blog for the rest of the year. Not likely. Okay, back to the all-day Anthony Bourdain Travel Channel marathon.

20 December 2008

as;ghdgawr

After 10 or so hours of work, I am basically done with my semester. One more thing on Monday, and then 3+ weeks of sleeping and sewing and embroidering and going to fucking Jamaica. Yes.

19 December 2008

spring thaw!

nature

So I've been practicing embroidery stitches all over the place, and I realized today that (a) I embroider a lot of nature scenes and (b) I embroider a lot of spring-time nature scenes. Next I'm going to try to embroider a foot of snow on top of everything. And I'll make it an urban scene! Buildings and everything! Ohhh shit!

snow day!

And I finished all my work yesterday, so I'll actually be able to enjoy it.

snow day

All that snow on the table is from this snowstorm. And it's not over yet! More photos later.

18 December 2008

snow day?

I'm really so very glad that I won't have to grade any papers next semester. Not that I don't enjoy reading them; I just really totally hate grading them. I'm almost done with the semester; I really might be done tomorrow by 5, if it doesn't snow as much as it's supposed to tonight. Oh, that's right, did you hear? There's apparently going to be 8-12" of snow tonight/tomorrow morning, so UWM might cancel some/all finals tomorrow. Awesome!

17 December 2008

cake in a jar

Holy crap, last post was stupid long. Three (short) things--

1. I have been using my zipper foot wrong for the past six months or so (i.e. however long I have been using it). Woops!

2. I'm totally going to make cake in a jar soon! Probably not until after Friday when my grades are submitted, but hey, Friday night baking party! Woo!

3. My semester is over, and my students' semester is nearly over. As of Friday at 5, I will be done, if all goes very well.

15 December 2008

things i have learned about food processors

So, as I have mentioned before, I have sitemeter. While sitemeter itself kind of sucks, it is super fascinating to see how people find my site (because I am self-absorbed). This entry that I wrote before I bought my food processor is one of the two most popular entries on my blog. Since half my traffic is from people looking for information on food processors, I thought I would tell you a little bit about what I've learned after having mine for... however long I've had it. Because I am here to help, and also because I want more traffic. And if you are at this entry because you followed the link I added in that first entry, I hope this is helpful.

1. First, since most people search “what to make with my food processor,” here is a convenient list, both things I’ve made and things I want to make.

Hummus
Salsa
Chopped vegetables (careful, they will get chopped far quicker than you’d think, I ended up with onion purée the first time)
Also! Julienned (sp?) vegetables--to use for spring rolls, homemade sushi, etc. (Apparently fancy food processors have attachments for julienne-ing (really, sp?) but I have no personal experience with this.)
Pesto
Peanut butter
Chutney (I really, really want to try this!)
Soup! (I still haven't tried this, but I should have time soon, and I've heard from others that it's super crazy easy.)


[Do you have any other ideas? I know there's other things I've thought about making, though I can't think of them at the moment.]

2. Hummus is really easy and really fun to make. You can add anything, and once you have a jar of tahini, you just need to keep a few cans of chickpeas around, and you can make hummus anytime. Jalepeños are really good, and obviously garlic is awesome.

3. I really don't use my food processor enough. I think I'd use it more if it was bigger, or if I had a dishwasher so it would be easier to clean.

4. But it does make it easier to chop vegetables for salsa. Oh! If you're making salsa with your food processor, you should definitely roast the tomatoes [possibly after covering them in olive oil] and then chop them in your food processor to whatever consistency you prefer, and then put the chopped tomatoes into a big bowl and add whatever vegetables you want. Or mango, I really want to try adding mango to salsa.

5. I still really want to try adding green onions or jalapeños to cream cheese. Or neufchatel cheese, actually.

6. The food processor I bought is too small. It was cheap, and I bought it to see if I would use it and to see if it was worth paying more money for a bigger, nicer one, and it is. So, you know, if you're thinking about buying one, keep that in mind. I'd recommend getting one with lots of fancy attachments. And get one that's big, that's important. It's frustrating to have to make a batch of peanut butter (or whatever) in three stages.

7. Speaking of which, making peanut butter is fun, but it is also messy. Well, not messy exactly, but difficult to clean. That seems obvious now that I say it, but cleaning peanut butter off the food processor container and those sharp little knives almost cancels out the fun that I have making the actual peanut butter. This is less of an issue if you own a dishwasher or if you get a food processor without a lot of little nooks and crannies where peanut butter can get caught.

(Holy shit this was long. Sorry!)

14 December 2008

[title]

Addendum to previous--I sort of hate that name already. I still like the whole salty thing, because that is a fun word to say, but... no. Or yes? I don't know. Finals, can't think properly, etc.

11 December 2008

feedback requested

Possible new shop/brand name for my "business":*

Be Salty

Thoughts?

It has no special meaning, or at least not much. There was this period where my sister liked calling people "salty," and she says "salty" in the most hilarious way as she has the best Wisconsin accent and is also generally hilarious**, and anyway, I liked the word but I thought maybe "be salty" was better than "salty." And I don't know, I kind of like the idea of "be salty" because it's kind of like "be upfront and honest and maybe say 'fuck' a few times, because why not?"

So I don't know, maybe? I kind of like it better than just "marinatina."


*Oh, that's probably kind of undermine-y, I mean my business that I am slowly working on building.

**Back when she was canvassing for MPIRG, they were campaigning against an oil pipeline, and she told me this amazing story where someone asked her why we can't just use nuclear power, and she made this explosion noise and mimed a mushroom cloud, and okay, it's hard to explain, but it was hilarious, and I made her do it like 100 more times. Good story!

handmade

Oh, dearies, what a week. Craft night was last night; lovely new (to me) people, and I learned three different variations on the Herringbone stitch. I was the only one embroidering; everyone else was making presents because they are nice people who plan ahead and make handmade gifts. I should start holiday shopping soon...

Anyway! Embroidery and history, all day everyday. Have obrovský paper due tomorrow, really think I might be able to get it to a non-embarrassing point by then. (See how I threw in some Czech there? I'M SMART.[obviously, since I only noticed on a second read that I spelled it "check" at first. FAIL.]) It's only 11:35am and already I've finished... I don't know, a page or two. Still! I am working before noon, clearly I have already won the day.

What else? Gmail has a new Tasks list function; totally amazing. That will do until I get my iPod touch/iPhone and am able to obsessively check/update iCal all day. Because obvs that's what I'm doing now, with that little iCal icon inches away from this here text box.

Okay. On to the paper writing. Photos of crappy embroidery to come.

04 December 2008

cat blog, part ii!

DSCN5651

I tried making a circle zippered purse, and it turned out terribly (lumpy and pretty rectangular, somehow), so here's a photo of my bedroom instead. More photos of the rest of my house whenever I have time to clean. Which may be soon, as I have a paper to finish and thus procrastinating to do. Exciting!

03 December 2008

swirls

DSCN5691

1. New idea, may take forever to finish if I continue as planned. Could be potentially awesome.

DSCN5688

2. Guess what I found? That's right, a whole mess of 15 year old embroidery floss that I bought when I was into cross stitching.

3. Other than all the embroidery, today was very difficult. Sometimes I think that I'm not very good at my job.

02 December 2008

i miss nature

DSCN5687

See, I told you I was relearning embroidery.

(I have so much to do, but I am not going crazy. Obviously it's all the sewing and embroidery.)