Quilting! and Leaves!

I picked up this pattern, and someday I will make it.

So pretty :)

Speaking of leaves, I also got this one. Crocheting, I do know! It's made on an afghan hook. I think mine is in my husband's truck, with the "traveling blanket" I work on whenever we take the truck somewhere. Which is rarely. Yeah, I've been working on that for a few years now...

Improvisational Lowfat Rice Pudding

It's *almost* getting to be that autumn crisp-in-the-air time of year. Almost, not quite. But still, I felt like making rice pudding. We had Thai for dinner Sunday night, and had a bunch of rice left over. So Monday morning I made this up, from what we had on hand. I surfed around a few recipes online, and got the basic gist of what makes Rice Pudding.

I think it came out pretty good. It was definitely more creamy that day, right out of the pot. The reheated version today is more like thick sticky oatmeal, but still tasty. Here's my attempt at the "recipe".

About 1 1/2 - 2 cups cooked white rice
Enough milk to cover the rice, plus a little more *
2 eggs
1/4 cup brown sugar, maybe a little more to taste
LOTS of cinnamon
A large pinch of nutmeg
A small pinch of allspice
2 individual-sized boxes of raisins (I didn't have any bulk ones)

* we only had about 1/2 cup of 1% in the fridge, so I made up another 1 1/2 cup or so with nonfat dried milk

Put the rice in a saucepan with the milk, and started it on a low flame. Meanwhile mix the eggs and the sugar in a small bowl. Add a little of the hot (not yet boiling) rice-milk mixture to the eggs and sugar, blend those to heat them up, and then put the egg-sugar mix into the saucepan.

Let it cook on a medium flame for about 10-15 minutes, stirring, and don't let it boil. While it's cooking, add the spices. You can add more to taste, after it's cooked. I like the cinnamon, and in hindsight I would have added more ;)

Then remove from heat and stir in the raisins. Voila! We got about 4 pretty large servings out of it.

Here's my estimate of nutritional facts, per serving of 1/4th -
Calories: 280, Fat: 4g, Carbs: 52g, Protein: 10g

Next time I might make it with 2% milk to make it a bit creamer, but definitely not heavy cream. I added the extra egg to make it thicker.

No pictures, sorry. I ate it already =)

Thrift Store Finds

My friend V and I went out shopping at some thrift stores today. She's looking for pieces of a steampunk outfit, and I was looking at sweaters. I found an article recently about how to deconstruct, wash (and dye) wool from sweaters. So of course I want to try it. I found this one, which is a pale lilac, and 70% lambswool, 20% angora rabbit, and 10% nylon. The cabling is pretty, but it's way too small a sweater, so I want to take it apart and make something else.

My camera battery is currently dead, and I can't find the charger, so these are from my phone. I could borrow my husband's camera, but that requires more effort, so I'll deal with poor quality to show these off right now. The color isn't nearly accurate. I'll take better pictures when I start pulling it apart. It isn't spotted or stained, the photo quality is just that bad.

Then I found these yarns at the dollar store for, yep, $1 a skein. Spook is doing a quality check.

The ribbon yarns are Lion Brand, and I'm happy to report that I got them for 1/6th of the normal price. The autumn ribbon I'm going to try and make a top of some sort, maybe knit. I got 9 skeins. The blue ribbon I got 4 skeins of, and I'm going to try a shawl with a big hook. The eyelash yarns I got to make this dog. I guessed from memory and got 9 skeins each, but I may go back and get a bit more red, as they're only 50 yards each. Hmm, now that I look at that pattern I see it's more square than I thought. I may modify that and make the body rounder.

Oh, and I've joined my old clay studio again. I was trying to take a ceramics class at the local JC, but the class got canceled for lack of attendance, even though the attendance level was currently 1 person short of the number of working wheels. I wrote a letter to admin and told them I'm very disappointed and never coming back. The studio costs a bit more, but I know it's worth it. Plus it's on my way home. They have a workshop coming up on fall decorations, and the model pieces are gorgeous =D

Btw, the geranium I posted recently just got eaten by the deer. Maybe it'll come back if I move it out of reach. Grrr. They also ate my "Taxi" yellow tomato plant.

Sugar-Free Chocolates for Mother's Day

I'm collecting the photos for my wedding dress construction post, but in the meantime here's something I made for my Mom this past Mother's Day.

The pattern is here at Coats and Clark. I made some modifications... The chocolates ended up bigger than they looked in the pattern, so I just picked my favorites and didn't make as many. I started making the box part, and realized that I already had a fabric-covered heart box that would be perfect. So I put the large heart that I had already made inside as a doily. I like how the lace came out. I also used a deeper red, which I liked better. It was lots of fun to make :)

Gardening Things

S&B was tonight, fun and mellow as usual. I'm working on a gift, so you don't get to see pictures yet. But here are some plants.

This is from a cutting of the geranium that Dad gave us. I'm really thrilled that it's taken off. Well, it's still really tiny, but it's still alive, and it's blooming for the second time. Hurrah!

The pepper plants got their new homes today. Well, pots that is. I'm glad they're doing well.

And my in-laws sent us something really cool that I've been wanting to do. They're living wreath frames, that you plant horizontal, and once the plants are established, you can hang on a wall/door. They sent two of them! I can't wait to get them set up :) Will definitely post pictures.

This isn't just a gardening blog though, really! Here's something I want to knit, the Tudora from Knitty. I like how it looks in the blue, but I'm not sure which color I'd want to try making it. I think something like that might work well on the motorcycle in the winter. I prefer the neck warmers that wrap around rather than pull over. And it's a knitting project even I might be able to finish!

Black Fiberfill

EDIT: Apparently they're now out of business. This makes me sad :( Please see my updated post.


I finally found a company that sells black fiberfill! Even when I crochet something really tightly, if it's dark, then inevitably some white stuffing pokes through.

I have some on it's way here right now, and I can't wait to use it. I wish my local stores carried this stuff.

Baby Pumpkin

I made this while hanging out with friends last night. I know that the leaf is not a "pumpkin leaf", but I thought it'd be cute on this tiny one.

See all those redwood droppings on our patio? Yeah, I swept that yesterday. Guess it was windy last night! Hello, September :)

Also you can see my straggling lavender plant. I need to move it to the front yard with my other two, so it gets what passes for sun around here. The plant on top is catnip, trying to be out of reach of the kitties. Although they don't show much interest in the fresh stuff, so I'll be drying it once it gets bigger. The planter box is the one I made from our old futon, with the mushrooms from my mother-in-law, and the newly-planted society garlic on the ends, to try and keep the deer away from my plants.

What really needs protection from the deer is my poor little jasmine plant, but I can't bring myself to plant something garlicky next to it, since I want to enjoy the scent too.