26 January 2009

first day of school

Hello there, how are you? I've been meaning to post about so many things, but they all relate to photos I've taken, and my hard drive is almost full, so I can't really put any more photos on my computer, which means that I can't upload them to Flickr, which obviously means that I can't write about anything until I clean up my hard drive. Oh, my life, it is so hard.

All well. I got so much done this weekend. I made bread, hummus, sugar cookies, lentil soup, and... something else, I think. I learned how to attach bias tape binding the proper way! That was a fucking achievement--it's such a finicky thing to do, and I've always avoided anything that might involve binding, but finally I know how to do it! All by machine, too--fuck binding things by hand, I don't have that kind of time. (Hooray for unnecessary swearing, am I right?) These three tutorials helped a lot--Heather Bailey, angry chicken, crazy mom quilts. The angry chicken video is totally sweet but doesn't explain corners, but the other two show an easy way to miter corners. Sweet, I know how to miter corners!

What else? School started today; my first classes are tomorrow. I'm super excited about teaching, not quite so excited about my own classes. I'm taking three instead of two; hopefully I will not regret that decision. As long as I have time to sew and bake bread, I will be okay. Oh, that's right, I bake bread now. Making homemade bread is so fucking easy. Uh, if you have a stand mixer, I guess. I made bread by hand once, and while it was fun, it was also way more messy and difficult than using the stand mixer. I have this amazing bread book, I'll write more about that at some point.

Okay, wow, this is all over the place. Maybe because I'm hungry? I haven't eaten since I had homemade lentil soup & homemade bread for lunch. One pot of lentil soup costs like $5 to make and provides at least a week's worth of totally delicious lunches. Saving money is fun! But, um, yes, more later about everything, I'm going to go find some food.

15 January 2009

blerg

So, I am still up north, but I'm going back to Milwaukee tomorrow. (Imagine me saying that in a deep Wisconsin accent, apparently it gets worse and worse the longer I'm up here.) My dad is driving down with me tomorrow, which is awesome as me & him & Nathan will get to hang out for a few days and I will be able to bring way more stuff home. Christmas presents, books that have been sitting in my room, sad and alone, for far too long, and of course, my new mixer. Oh, and the reason that I'm still here is because my grandpa is in the hospital. He is doing better than he was, and I'm hoping for the best, but I don't know, this is all just lame. Why can't everyone be healthy and happy and around forever?

09 January 2009

today is the day i got tired of doing nothing

So after a week of relaxing in Jamaica, and another few days of almost the same at my parents' house, I am officially getting bored. All the baking is fun, but I am going crazy from all the time at home. Which is why I'm currently at the Minnesota Historical Society, waiting for some documents I requested from the archive. I'm impressed I got by this long without working on my thesis; I am not great at relaxing. I came on a whim today; it seemed like the cheapest way to pass time outside of the house. Not as cheap as I thought since parking cost $5, but I did happen to meet the curator for Native American collections & artifacts. She was using a collection I requested; we're going to have lunch sometime soon and talk about "traditional" crafts and such.

I just need to figure out when I'll be in the area to meet with her. I was going to stay up north for another week, but I am getting antsy, and I have a bunch of work-related things that I should do sooner rather than later. I think if I go back on Sunday, I may still have time to come back up north for a long weekend before school starts. We'll see, I guess.

Okay, they brought me my requested collection, must look through this and type notes before my computer dies. Have a lovely day.

08 January 2009

baked

I'm in the process of making both a loaf of bread and pizza dough. The bread is going to suck--too much water, not enough flour, it's totes not raising right--but I think the pizza dough is going to be amazing. Did I mention I got a Kenmore stand mixer for Christmas? It's amazing.

Still no Jamaica photos, much less baking photos. I could go through and clear hard drive space so I can upload more photos, or I could continue sitting around in my pajamas, with brief interruptions for sewing and/or baking. I love winter break.

06 January 2009

i'm back!

I got back from Jamaica last night. Guess what? It was awesome! Photos to come, once I get around to uploading them. My computer is almost out of hard drive space, so I've got to deal with that somehow. (First world problem!) I'm making crackers right now; the dough is currently resting. There will be photos. Photos, photos, and more photos! I brought back a bunch of small bottles of this peanut-flavored white rum creme, and one of them broke. Everything would have been fine if my suitcase hadn't been overweight; everything got all mixed up when I had to take out 5.5 pounds worth of stuff, and now all my clothes smell like overproof rum creme. (First world problem!)

Time to check on the crackers!