Expansion

Well, I added the remainder of all my fabric onto the small quilt that I posted a photo of earlier. It is now wide enough to cover both East facing windows, which unfortunately were exposed for a while, and fortunately are right above our bed which rests on the ground. I only brought a little bit of fabric with me here to Berkeley, and only because I had a stash of pre-cut, ready to sew together, squares when I was ambitious and completed only the first part of making a quilt for myself. 

Recently I visited a vintage and antiques fair in south Oakland at Jack London Square and scored a lot of fabric at a very reasonable price and will be making some pot holders and other gadgets out of it, I will post them when I am done! 

Fresh Bread

Bread making tricks that I have learned, not for the faint of heart. 

1) If you cannot bear to use 100% wheat flour (I admit, it is awfully dense), you can still use half white and half wheat to keep it healthier. My rule is, to change a 6-C flour recipe to all wheat, double the baking soda for more bounce. Lately I have also been using flax-seed flour, about 20% flax flour and 80% wheat. Double the baking soda, no problems.

2) Placea shallow pan (not too shallow) of water on the bottom rack and place your bread pan(s) on the top rack. This should keep your final product from sticking to the bottom of the pan. The best part of baking bre

ad is turning the pan upside down and plopping out a beautiful hunk of carbs. Nothing worse than scraping burnt dough off of the pan, right?

3) In most recipes, you can swap out cream for yogurt if you do not have any cream handy. Or, you can use almond milk. Soy milk does not thicken properly, but oddly enough almond milk will!

Happy Baking!

Something Blue

My sister is getting married to her man in July of this year, after a quick engagement beginning just before Christmas and I am thrilled for her. I believe she is very happy living in Ames, Iowa doing god-knows-what-corn-business-agro-biology. Anyway, for her wedding I wanted to make her a small romantic gift that fulfilled the "something old, new, borrowed, blue" rhyme. My mother thinks that she does not even know of this rhyme but oh she will.

 A good friend was visiting Berkeley when I first moved here, a nice transition to a new home, and we wandered into a Beads emporium. I found a few beautiful blue beads which I decided to make into a bookmark for sis. The lighter colored bead is actually a salt rock. So I guess if she is having a real hungry moment reading a book she can also lick the gift, or attract deer. The book I am giving it to her in I found inside of my sewing box and I believe it belonged to my mom. I inherited my mom's old sewing box (actually just a giant tackle box) years ago, and in the move somehow I missed this gem. It is a 1946 young women's guide to menstruation and inside contains tidbits like to remember to look good even if you're in pain! And to wear your pad garter tight and wash it regularly! And that your cramps are a normal part of becoming a desirable female! As my sister enters into a possibly scary, definitely new, and exciting time in her life I hope she remembers to stay positive and embrace her femininity, but not become a docile wife. And I hope she appreciates the sentimentality of this "blue gift" :)

Homely House

It takes a lot to make a house a home. It's an add balance between clean and dirty, new and used, pile to wash and pile to put away. M said to me "thanks for making it feel like home in here." I guess it is true that home is where the heart is, home is where you rest your head. And in our case, home is where you hang your maps on the walls and recreate a room that existed in what seems like another lifetime. Last night I had a horrible dream that Rosie was killed by someone seeking vengeance against me. I woke up to her rattling around in her cage at the foot of our bed which rests on the hardwood floor which is littered with Rosie's pellet crumbs no matter how many times we sweep and suddenly it feels like home! These pictures are of a chair we purchased, a chair we found, a table we purchased covered in my fabric scraps and favorite scarf, on top of which lies some rose petals I found on the pavement outside the laundromat we walked to in our new town. Feels good to have a space to call our own.

We are still missing a few things around here, like furniture, and close friends, but we have each other. We have Rosie and our photographs and our maps.

Berkeley Baby

I'm reviving this old blog so I have somewhere to post my crafts and things I have been doing in and around Berkeley. January 1, 2011 marked the entrance into a new world and a new home which needed some love so I created these pillow cases and this quilted curtain. The pieces for the curtain began back at the cabin but I am such a procrastinator, they made the trip and semi-sewn squares with sort-of decorations on them. In a jam, I decided they would make an easy window-cover. Now it hangs on the wall of our new place which needs an even larger curtain, so the quilt will grow!