Macarons

When we visited Austin a few weeks ago, Betsy and Ashley and I sat and had some tea in the afternoon, and I had a lovely pistachio macarons to go with. Turns out Betsy wants macarons at her wedding, and although I'm sure there are those more qualified than I, it would still be fun to try!
I'm starting with this recipe, using almonds ground into flour with my blender. I used a little bit of imitation vanilla for flavor, but I think it would be fun to make some with green tea powder, or maybe some mint ones, and several kinds of fruit flavors. I still haven't decided what to fill the ones I'm making with. Maybe nutella, or jam. I don't really feel like whipping up something special for them.
Next time, or at least if I'm making them for the wedding, I'd like to have someone helping me, and a candy thermometer.

So far: first batch didn't really work. I think they were too dry. they looked great, but when I pryed them off the pan, the were hollow underneath, and they never got a 'foot' like they were supposed too. This was with added water, and a shorter baking time. Weird. I can still fill them, they taste fine, but they will just take a lot more filling, since they are concave instead of flat on the bottom.
With the remaining batter, I added some melted chocolate, and once piped out, I let them sit a bit longer than the first batch had. Once they baked, I opened the oven, and voila! they have perfect little feet, and smell amazing.
I turned off the oven, but left them in there, since they didn't bake as long as the recipe said to, but I don't want them to dry out like the first ones.
I'm going to have to buy some peanut butter to put in there, and maybe make some sort of minty ganache? hmm. I will probably do all this tomorrow.

Snow Day Activities

I wouldn't really say it's snow, but it's white, and it's cold, and it's keeping us all inside. And it's given me the chance to do a project that I've seen a lot of places, but never had the opportunity to try before: ice decorations.

The idea is that you put berries or branches or something pretty in a container, and fill it with water, and let it freeze, and then hang it from a tree or something, to decorate outside. You can use a bunt pan to make a wreath one, but I just had these little cake pans, and some red berries I picked up on our walk yesterday.

I hung another one over the side of the balcony, and I think it will last longer, because it's not being blown around by the wind. It is just hanging on a thumbtack though, whereas this on is hung on a nail. I'm curious to see whether they melt or break first!

Trudging

I've been doing a bit better lately, although the house is a mess.
I made some soup last night, and some sort of blueberry cake for mark.
I'm working on some slippers for Christy. I wasn't able to find as nice of sweaters at Goodwill, so I'm hoping these look just as nice as the first ones.
I cleaned up most of the Legos this afternoon.
I hung up the laundry yesterday, and did a load of dishes yesterday and today. Took out a month's worth of recycling.
Tomorrow we'll finally be going to visit my parents.
I've been making myself smoothies, and they've been nice and refreshing, making me feel better. But I used up all the juice last night. Can you use milk instead? I guess I'm just going to have to find out.

Later

So I got right up after writing that last post, and did a load of dishes, swept the kitchen and stairwell, put my coat on, and went to the grocery store. I feel much better now, than if I had stayed at home watching the waning light, and playing Little Big Planet 2.
Other good things that are making me feel better: text messages from good friends, emails with good news from Daddy, and on the way to Tom Thumb, I passed a girl who was singing to herself, and another who was getting into her car with a huge batch of pink cupcakes.

Next up: empty the dishwasher and run another load, make lentil stew, and then, maybe, sit and knit.

January and February

This time of year is hard for me, especially lately. Because of our horrible work schedules, I usually only see the daytime sky for a few minutes on my way to work, and then by the time I get off work, it's dark. Spending months in darkness is really not good for my depression-prone nature. Spring is much better, but then in the summer, again, I can't go out til after dark, because of the heat. Blech.
I'm trying to get out of this slump, but it's hard to know what to do about it. Take vitamin D (does that work)? Just will my self to do more? (This Does Not work. but I always try it first, until things get out of control) Wait it out? (that's what usually happens)

So, the house has been a mess, the laundry was getting out of control, there were piles of christmas decorations that had been taken down, but not moved to the closet. Lots of dishes, but not much food. Not enough showering, or vacuuming, or plant watering.

Mark's been really understanding, and helpful, and last night I got home from work to see almost all the decorations put away, the odd project bits and pieces away, the pine needles all vacuumed up... it felt great. Now I feel like I can handle the last bits that need doing, and maybe then some.

I'd like to start knitting more, and selling on etsy again, if possible. I figure that it will always be nice to have some options out there for extra money, if I ever have the need.

I have also been wanting to knit myself a sweater, since I rarely knit for myself. I'm thinking this one:

But I have to make myself get to the yarn shop to buy supplies for it, which involves spending money, which starts up my anxiety-and-depression machine. (I do have some money saved up for it, but that doesn't make parting with it easier!)

I do feel proud of myself for selling so many pairs of handwarmers this year. I think I lost count, but it's something like six or seven! If I hadn't spent all the money from them on hot chocolate, I would be amazed at how much money I have in my pocket. (Okay, I still have money from them left. But not as much as I should)

Maybe today, instead of playing video games til mark comes home, I'll open wide the curtains to get as much sun as possible before it gets dark, and then put on some music, and do the dishes, knit something to sell, or maybe even walk to the grocery store to pick up stuff for lentil stew! Better start quick though, I can feel the sun setting as I type.

Felt Slippers (now with pictures)

I was very tempted to try knitting slippers for christmas presents, but thought of it too late, and thought better of it. Instead, I'm making felted slippers from old sweaters. I haven't finished, so let's hope they work!
Here's how I'm doing it:
Step 1:
Buy sweaters. I went to Goodwill, and found two very nice cardigans, a red one from the gap, and a grey yoked one from old navy. Choose 100% wool sweaters, it's okay if they have holes in them, or whatever, as long as it's not in a place that you will be using. A cute fair isle pattern or something is nice. You could probably buy wool pants or a wool skirt as well, but they would be a thinner fabric most likely, and therefore you would need to buy soles or something to make them last longer.
Step 2:
Cut off anything that isn't wool: buttons, tags, zippers, etc. You could even deconstruct the sweater at this point, but I didn't bother.
Step 3:
Felt. I put them in a Hot/Cold permanent press cycle with some jeans first and detergent first, but they didn't felt much. Putting them in a hot dryer with jeans didn't do much either. I washed them again on hot/cold on the regular cycle with just a bit of detergent, and two old towels and my crocs. Felted up almost perfectly, so I put them in the dryer on a knits cycle. I had to empty the lint trap about three times though. Crazy piles of lint.
This is how they look after step 3:

Step 4:
Make a pattern. I traced my foot on a piece of paper, and cut it out. I'm not sure what people's feet sizes are, but I'm hoping that if I cut one a little big and one a bit small, it will work. Now I have to decide what I want the top of the slipper to look like: Do i want sides, or just a plain pocket style? how many thicknesses? do I want to incorporate any of the features of the sweater into the slipper? 
Step 5: cut out. eek! You'll want several soles, and one or two tops for each slipper. how many depends on how cold the recipients house might be, or how thick the felt is. you don't want a super stiff upper, but you don't want the sole to wear through the first winter either.
I did deconstruct the sweaters at this point, so they would lay flat.

The felted sweaters will not ravel, but will be harder to cut through. I cut out three thicknesses of sole:

and one thickness of the top. I would've liked one more upper thickness, but there wasn't any extra. For the second pair,  I was hoping to make use of the yoke design. being a raglan-type sweater, there are four shoulder seams, instead of two, so it will be impossible to cut an upper that doesn't have a seam. I've just had to center the upper between two seams. I think it will be fine.

Step 6: Sew together. I used some yarn to baste the sole layers together so they wouldn't stretch while I sewed them together. Then I used doubled thread and blanket stitch, to sew the slippers together. Then I sewed the upper to the sole, also using the blanket stitch. For the red slippers, I folded over the ribbed edge and sewed a button (taken from the original cardigan) on the outer edge of each slipper. For the grey ones, I folded over the edge as well, but no button.
Finished pictures:

And they loved them! and showed them off to everyone!

Christmas Crafts Everywhere: or, what I did on my vacation

The cookies were okay. everybody told me they were good, but they didn't seem sweet and chewy enough to me. It doesn't help that I don't really like eating sweets, because even though I've got a good idea in my head of how I want those cookies to taste, it doesn't meant I want to make a whole bunch, or even necessarily taste them when they come out of the oven. I'm probably just going to use that AG recipe, but cut down on the baking time, because they were really hard. Maybe flavor the icing with orange. we'll see. They were cute, at the very least.

I'm taking my vacation this week, and I'm trying to get as much done as possible while I can, because this wedding is coming fast, and christmas is right after.
We bought our christmas tree yesterday. I can't tell if it's too early or not, but I was so excited I don't want to wait. We lit and decorated it too, and now it's smelling up the place like crazy. :) I can't find the tin of ornament hooks though, so we only hung the ones that still had in hooks from last year. It's still plenty decorated though! maybe we should stop buying ornaments for a while.
I also wrapped most of my christmas presents that I've bought so far. It's just so much easier than keeping them hidden away somewhere. (I keep a box of gift wrapping/mailing gear under the couch all year round. I've got bubble wrap, smaller pieces of wrapping paper, tape, scissors, tags and envelopes. The box of tissue, and the rolls of wrapping paper are kept elsewhere though)
I've of course put up our beloved advent calendar. So far, the manger, cow and chicken are up. I can never remember what order I put them in the pockets the year before, so it's always a fun surprise!
Things I need to work on now:
-finish buying christmas presents for mark.
-make a popcorn/cranberry garland to put on the porch.
-make the sashes for all us bridesmaids.
-finish already started ornaments
-start any ornaments I want to give as presents for Baker family gift swap
-eat more pie
-maybe start working on the programs for the wedding, if I get some info from deena on what she wants on there.
-keep knitting hand warmers for tony
-start knitting stuff for me

There's probably a whole bunch of other things, but that's a start!