Tell me why I don't like Mondays

I'm heading to band practice and feeling particularily uninspired. The pates de fruit fiasco made it's way encore into my life after I tried resurecting the recipe using lichee fruit and peach. Although I made a valient effort, it again ended in a mushy gooey mess:(. I don't think I'll be cooking fruit again any time soon.

On the other hand, I finished liz's hat ( which is a nicer dupe of the entrelac hat) and am on to making Gary's fingerless mitts. Also a fairly uninspiring project, I'm starting to get antsy for doing something challenging.

I looked up some tesselations online and I think the mitts that I plan on making for myself will be based on some sort of pattern like that.

I also finished Szabo's baby sophisticate... Need to find me some good buttons though. Feeling unproductive... Need to take a day off work for some mental health/ crafty productiveness.



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Enterlac hat

I decided to branch out on my skills and try my hand at enterlac knitting. My first attempt was kind of sloppy ( didn't slip my 1st stitch which made for ridgy edges) but luckily my friend Iwona gave me a quick tutorial. The result: a just right sized enterlac hat. Will post the pattern soon.

Oddfellows

A-man and I decided to mix things up and have dinner at oddfellows. I had heard good thing about the place from my friend Kyle Brown so we decided to go.


The ambiance was really cute and ecclectic. One thing I liked is that they had stock ale on the beer list.


The dinner menu was pretty varried but we decided to go for the game stew.


All in all absolutely delicious. Nice big and melty pieces of lamb in a rich gravy, creamy potatos and tangy red cabbage. Definitly awesome and we have some to take home for later.

The emergency dress

This is the dress (skirt actually...) that I made the other day because I was having a work clothing emergency. Not bad eh?

I like beer...

So after trying to see Avatar and being thwarted several times (TTC was late, our brunch place being closed, a freak power outage etc. Etc.) we decided on drinking some beer and chilling out before the nine o clock show. Thank goodness for beer. Avatar better change my life now.

Fiasco and then some...

To further the Pates De Fruits fiasco, I rejellified the Mango mass with a crap load of gelatine and boiling. Once set the result was a palatable soft soft jelly - almost too soft to be candy:(

The whole thing has made me a little weary of the candymaking, but I haven't given up yet, and will try again when I have some more time.

In the mean time I was having a wardrobe meltdown yesterday because I didn't fit into any of my work clothes (probably because I'm eating too many things like Pates De Fruits) and I have a formalish work function.

I got it set in my head to try and make a black bubble skirt (to stylishly go with a button up shirt?) I pulled out the sheers and ruler, and luckily I had some black twill at home (which I wanted to make sleeves out of... long story) so I went to work. I took the circumference of my favorite dress and measured my waist and got to work. The result: a servicable gathered skirt that resembles a 1950's standard.

I'll be at a work conference for the next 2 1/2 days, which means I won't have any crafty things to do for the next while:(

Oh Woe to the Pates de Fruits!

The pates that we made yesterday for some reason didn't set! Oh the horror. I excitedly woke up this morning to see if our jellies were ready, but found that they were still liquidy - maybe we didn't bring the sugar to the proper boiling point. I was so depressed, I went back to bed.

Here is a picture that has the apple jelly that didn't set. I decided I wasn't quite through yet - I tossed the mango one I made back into the saucepan and boiled the crap out of it. I figured with the addition of powdered gelatin, I'd end up with some sort of gelatinous mass. I've got to update Liz on the situation.

More to follow, but in the mean time, here's a picture of a Pistashio Rosewater Cupcake that Liz and I made recently, just so that I don't feel like such a food failure.

A new year

So in order to give a home to the general creative stuff I do, I decided to put them on a blog. So all the various pictures of foods and deserts I've taken, all the knitted pieces and all the crafty bits of my life now have a home.

The idea of starting a blog is a bit daunting, but I think that documenting my creative output is a good idea, just so that I can be sure that there is something that I am doing with my life that is productive.

That being said today involves:
1) knitting the massive shawl/cape/cowl/thing out of cascade eco-wool (approx. 50% finished - woot!)
2) purchasing a skein of Pearl Ten coloured Malabrigo - this will be fairisle mitts for me
3) attempting the creation of Pates de Fruits (good 'ole fruitpaste for us english speaking folk) which is a kind of fruit jelly candy. My friend Liz and I have been on evening cooking kicks, and it's good to have a partner in crime when trying out new and potentially challenging recipes. My recipe involved Mango Peach flavour while Liz's was the more traditional Apple/Pear combination. Both look delicious and are gently hardening (fingers crossed) in the fridge.

My day also involved a deliciously satisfying dinner of Pork Bone Soup at our local Korean place - Ka-Chi.

Gotta love weekends:)