Knitting Setup

I guess I have a few things to mention that are relevant to a crafting/publishing blog. First, winter's come early and the knitting is out. I had a fire going last night, but I'm out of the mulch-logs and this summer's experiences have left my confidence shattered. Sure I can start a fire with real wood, but where there's fire there's smoke, you know.

In publishing news, I paid a visit to Wolsak & Wynn to conduct an interview for a paper I was writing. Came home bubbling with industry gossip and free copies of some of the books I worked on. I could have sworn I took another one, but I can't for the life of me remember what it was. And, as a rookie publicity mistake, I've covered David Collier's name on Hamilton Illustrated. I guess I shouldn't take ALL the credit.

And, a little late, this year's pumpkin features a smarmy snot-nosed pirate who's lost his eyepatch.

Roasted Habanero Hot Sauce

Those scotch bonnets growing in the garden? Oh they were habanero peppers. One of those instances where finding the labels for the plants should have been done before testing the fruit. No lasting damage done, except to the yogourt tub I attacked while my head was on fire.

MomBlom's household has never been one for spicy food, but with family additions we've been angling for the hotter things in life. As such, a plentiful supply of hot peppers was very exciting, but a little perplexing. What do we do with this much spice? We preserve'em!

As a perfect way to test out this preserving book I picked out at the gift show, I figured I'd get the peppers canned or jarred and see what to do with them next. First thing's first, they're apparently better roasted. That's easy to do! Just wash them and dry them with a paper towel, and lay them on some aluminum foil.

Sprinkle them with oil, place a rack in the top third of the oven, and broil the peppers until they're blistered and blackening.

Nestle them in paper towel (for the oil) until they cool, then slice off the stems (and seeds if you want, but I left them in).

Every time I did this I knew there was a whole new batch of peppers on its way, so instead of going right to the preserving process, I froze the peppers at this point. I don't have the book in front of me, but I think it says that they're good frozen for six months or so. At least three.

When I had enough habanero in the freezer, I got myself a brand new canner, some nifty jars, and a six-pack.

According to the book though, peppers aren't great to preserve on their own. They require a crazy method of canning that even this baby can't do. But sauces and chutneys that are high in acid can be preserved perfectly well with the boiling-water method, so I opted for a hot sauce recipe with plenty of vinegar. I've got the recipe on Pinterest, but for the sake of convenience, I found it here.

One thing I didn't know: the main ingredient in most hot sauces is carrots!

I think next year, if for some reason we grow this many pepper plants, I'll try a batch with fresh peppers. These just look so mushy and sad.

Here's the hot sauce post-puree and pre-simmer. I'm really curious as to the final product. The hot sauce recipe suggests simmering for five minutes to give a bit more of a liquid consistency, although I didn't notice much of a difference. The thing is, I've made two batches now, and each time I didn't have quite enough to fill the last jar. This means the preserving process wouldn't work, so those leftovers just go into the fridge to be eaten by me on everything. But I've yet to hear back what the finished preserved sauce is like.

The preserving process itself is really fun, because it seems so clinical and I like that in my kitchen. The dimensions of this canner make me SO ANGRY, but my first instinct to get squat, wide-mouthed jars was a good one. The boiling-water method is pretty standard and can easily be found on the internet, I'm sure. I got it from a book which makes me feel special, but then that book doesn't have a recipe for hot sauce, and the recipe I used doesn't tell you how long to boil the jars for. I made do with instructions for a tomato-sweet pepper chutney, which seemed to have most of the same ingredients, and boiled the filled jars for 25 minutes. That's why I don't know exactly how the finished product will taste; only the onions, garlic, and carrots are really cooked in the recipe, so I don't know what will happen to the heat or consistency after being boiled for another 25 minutes. 

It won't kill anybody though, I know that.

Say it with Quilting

Everything I want to say goes into this. The fabric itself holds kisses and tears, hugs from a hoop, and months of neglect, because how can I give these things a sense of completion?

A Week at the Gift Show

Spent a good part of the last week helping out with setting up and running the HarperCollins booth at the CGTA Gift Show. Culmination of my whole internship, basically, and with the office picnic tomorrow, everything's kind of got the old end-of-school-year vibe. I've been so... I don't even want to say stressed, because all of the work I put in was a joy (as it is for everyone: that life-size Gruffalo is hand-made by one of the sales assistants).  I guess I just love books. Hated them for a couple of minutes today, but naw, I love'em. I feel different than when I started this though. I mean, I felt a lot of things last week that were a result of steroids, but in general I think it finally hit me that only so much can drastically change before I change. And that's a huge relief, because it's that inner shift I've been waiting for, I guess. I just hope it sticks.

But also I feel sure that it WILL stick, if I just stick around books. Come on, look at this wall! I read more kids' books in the last three days than I have since grade school.

Then, oh my goodness, I found out that at the end of the show I get to take books home. Obviously, I went straight to the craft display. Tough call, but in the end I chose this modest pile:

Among which, most are for the nieces. Tal loves The Gruffalo (she even recited some of it at breakfast this morning), so I picked up a Monkey Puzzle board book. I think it's new; I don't even know. Also she likes planes, although that particular choice is rather basic. But no matter: maybe the Nai-pod will like it. My Zoo, who wouldn't like My Zoo? And The Crocodile Who Didn't Like Water, I actually bought that for myself. I keep putting it on lists and it's just the cutest. Also, it reminds me of a certain someone who thinks baby crocodiles are cute and also likes dragons (spoiler alert: this particular baby crocodile IS a dragon).

But admittedly, I'm MOST excited about these two. And you should be too, since they're the ones most likely to reappear in this particular setting.

:D

That is all.

Stormy Weather

 A little jaunt to this year's Beer and Ribs Festival showed what damage can be done in just ten minutes of a bad storm. This is the storm. Pictures could never do it justice, but I was fearful for my life as I often am during storms in this area. They're not hurricanes, that's for sure, but they're sudden and they're brutal. Also tornados, sometimes (this time, but not here)

But that was last week. This weekend I'm in a weird philosophical funk, thanks to putting on "Brave Neuro World" TEDTalks as I was falling asleep. Not weird in bad way, but just weird enough to influence this stupid choice in footwear for my tour around the muddy garden. Stickin' it to society the best way I know how.

As an update, this it not the SAME cucumber that I showed before, but this is how they're generally doing. There was a bigger one that we have since cut off and lost track of. They kind of look like sea slugs which is awesome, but apparently they don't taste great.

On the other hand, zucchinis. Gon' make a zucchini cake, maybe.

And oh my goodness the both of them. are. huge. MomBlom and I have just agreed to grow another huge prize zucchini this year. There's no actual prize: it's just big.

Perfection, non?

The robins thought so. Unfortunately this nest is right under the floor of the deck, so I think they've since moved on. That's fine. Nothing ruins an al fresco meal quite like an anxious robin leering at you from various vantage points.

This is my latest knitting project. It's so complicated it needs a crochet hook. It doesn't look like much of anything yet. Granted, I did accidentally photograph the wrong side of it, but the fact that I couldn't tell probably just proves my point. ALSO ALSO That yarn is a beautiful silk/cashmere blend that MomBlom got me for my birthday. In my favourite colour (greener than it appears here)! She's awesome.

Apologies/Announcement

I've been trying to get on top of things, but things keep happening. I'm currently typing through the bleary fog of exhaustion that's been clouding my judgment for the last two weeks. Why? Oh I haven't even TOLD you yet!

I think we'd left off at the fact that I didn't have an internship anymore, and I didn't want to talk about it. Well, it was a no-hard-feelings kind of situation, and I wasn't in a huge rush to muddle about at a government-run company that had never had an intern, and especially not in a city that is notoriously short on publishing companies. Plus, still being enrolled in the Ryerson certificate program for publishing meant that I was being sent a huge number of employment and internship opportunities nearly every day. So I figured it wouldn't be too difficult to find a replacement position; my biggest concern was preserving the six-week holiday I'd set up for myself. Fortunately, I was called in for an interview with HarperCollins Canada nearly immediately.

It was my first opportunity to use my newly designed resume and a nicely fattened portfolio, which I put together with the most ancient binding machine imaginable:

I guess it payed off though; I was offered the position pretty quickly too. One of the small projects I was to work on was binding special sales catalogues. When being shown the ropes for it, an identical binding machine was pointed out, and I was asked if I had ever used one of these before. I just laughed. I'm in the right place.

So yeah, thanks to new carpets and a paint job in the offices, my start date wasn't set until May 27th, meaning I got my six weeks vacation. I spent most of it making paper flowers, some of it at Erin's wedding, much more watching Kids in the Hall until my brains turned to mush.

So where was I? Oh yeah! The fog of exhaustion. Well, I'm still living here in Waterloo. I'm hoping to get a permanent position in the industry come September, but it may not happen, and I've been moving so much that I don't want to move AGAIN for potentially only three months. Once I get at least a year-long contract, then I'll move.

But the commute? Oh man. I get up at 5:00 am, am on the train at 5:45, arrive in Toronto at 7:53, am at my desk by 8:20, leave at 5:00 pm, catch the train at 5:45, arrive at 7:42 (but it's always late), and get home by 8:20. It's... it's do-able. But this exhaustion-fog is quite... pervasive. In fact, if anything distracts me from lying down and taking a nap right now, I think I'll just cry.

Speaking of, I think that's all I have energy for. Those six weeks gave me material for a whole summer's worth of blog posts though, so worry not. I'll be back.

Preparations for a Wedding

Erin and Andrew's wedding is just around the corner now, and it's keeping the crafting hands busy. First thing when I got back to Waterloo was the wedding shower! There was a food and drinks table with jumbo straws that I wish I had stolen every time I have an avocado smoothie (a new favourite).

And a Bronwyn Snyder cake which, despite worries, was delicious. But the sudden realization dawns that I never got a strawberry... 

Some BORING punch. Actually it was delicious AND there were mimosas outside.

But all I really did was provide transport and show up, basically. Oh, and tack up some flowers in doorways.

Hannah, on the other hand, cross-stitched badges for everyone.

AND made adorable cupcakes! So it's almost like you were there now, isn't it? Hm?

In other news, I've been helping out some since then. I got my sewing machine all oiled up! I am way more excited about this than most things. That sewing machine is a good reference point for me in life.

In any case, I brought it over to Erin's for some quilting madness!!!!!!!!

We got all of the rows done so it shouldn't take too much more time to finish, because of Erin's sensible choice of quilting method: knots!

And, during downtimes, putting together giant paper flowers has taken over all other duties. These are amazing. Instructions available here and I highly recommend making a bunch of these without having any purpose in mind. They're fun.

Impulse Crafting

It occurred to me a few months ago that I can do cameos of more than just people, but I didn't have the time or motivation to go out and buy any materials. I figured I'd wait until I got back to my Ontario studio, and it turns out I didn't have to wait very long! I would have liked to maybe try a colour other than black, but that would mean going to the store when everything else was within reach.

So I made this today. 

I also notice that it's been nearly a month since my last interesting thing. That's not true, because everything's changed. Everything's overwhelmingly up the air, but without classes or homework, I guess I've got no excuse not to tell you about the lasagna I made last Easter. I'll get to it, don't worry.

Update: I have a confession about this cameo. You might notice that the antlers are looking a little shaky. This isn't because I've cut down my caffeine intake, but because I apparently never put the brushes away last time I cleaned them, and left them in the bathroom. Since I haven't lived here in the last eight months, obviously the brushes had to go somewhere that wasn't in the toothbrush holder, and so they went on my shelf in the hutch that fits over the toilet. So... when I was blearily looking for some allergy medication, I dropped my tiniest brush in the toilet and couldn't bring myself to do anything but throw it away. Thought I was careful enough not to need it. Guess not.

Solidarity: It's Always There.

Two things for now, more things for later.

First, I noticed while reading Downton Abbey Cooks that yes, locking your food in the oven happens to the best of us.

Second, the results are in for the "contest" I ran a few weeks ago. Bronwyn wins! But it won't be ready as early as I'd promised, because I realized that I still have a bunch of brown fabric left over from the Hot Beartatos at home, with which I've yet to do anything. But the good news is, I'm going back there in 42 days!

Oh, and I have an internship! Working at Livres Canada Books, helping Canadian publishers with international marketing endeavours. Sounds pretty schmancy, but I'm sure I'll just spend the whole summer writing catalogue copy. On the other hand, this is probably the best way to find out what's needed for going beyond the domestic market as a little start-up publisher. So it's pretty fantastic.

Things are... better than two weeks ago. That is for sure. I guess I just know some wonderful people :)

I Mean it.

If someone buys me this book, I promise they will get a stuffed fox within the month. I'm so serious that I wrote this post in HTML. Just click that image, I dare ya.

New Sleeve for a New Laptop

I've been knitting for years now, and I did teach myself how. But until recently, knitting patterns of any kind had me stumped. I think, generally, it's because I don't have the patience to figure out the gauge of the yarn and needles, but once I've got some projects done, maybe I should do some gauge-knitting. Then I could make sweaters and things! But I had to get the terminology down. I figured I'd start with some lacy patterns, so I could learn some tricks, and still work on projects where I could judge the size of the finished product just by looking at it. So I made myself a laptop sleeve!

It's problematic. I love the colour, and the cathedral-like lace turned out perfectly, but... It's too big. And not only that, it's also stretchy. And the laptop slips around in the case so much that I can't hold it without feeling like the whole computer is just going to slip out and break when I haven't even had it for a month. I feel like this even when the closed part is on the bottom. So now, I've got the sleeve lining my otherwise unlined laptop pocket in my knapsack. A complete waste, if you ask me.

Perhaps if I block it, it'll shrink and lose some of its give? I don't know. I'm on to bigger things now anyway.

And another thing: All day I've been wondering what's so special about January 23rd. Just realized: isn't today the statistically worst day of the year? Sigh. Sounds about right. At least my dragonfly earrings make me cool friends on the Skytrain, and there's nothing wrong with having an unwatched episode of Downton Abbey kicking around one's computer either. If only I wasn't so... tired...

Bit of a Brag

Last time I talk about the holidays, promise.

I admit it. I watched all of Scrooge. I just like watching a young Albert Finney try to play an old man, and comparing it to today's Albert Finney.

More bragging: I got to snuggle this robed old man for three weeks.

And oh my goodness, by (my) request, lovely steak in madeira sauce with perfectly baked potatoes and green beans for Christmas Eve dinner. I do like green beans.

And yeah, that's the table runner I made last Christmas. Looks like it's going to be a regular Christmas feature.

First use of a Christmas present: boiled egg forms. The heart maybe didn't work so well, but the other one?

YEAH. It's a BUNNY. Unfortunately the method is to peel a hot boiled egg, stick it in the egg form, and dunk it in ice water for ten minutes. At first I thought this would work just fine with soft-boiled eggs, so I could get my Christmas morning runny yolk fix. You know how it is. Anyway, it's really hard to peel a soft-boiled egg. That, and of course being in ice water for ten minutes would make anything cold. So Christmas morning breakfast was adorable, but not very hot on the whole.

Never mind. There was the traditional salmon terrine. It's just not Christmas without this stuff.

And Christmas dinner? Coq-au-vin. Back in the day, my parents made this sometimes, but it's FULL of mushrooms, and mushrooms were one of those things I just would not eat. Mushrooms and pretty much anything that wasn't pasta or boiled potatoes slathered in ketchup. But there was one late evening, and I remember it vividly, that my dad was making coq-au-vin (so the flavours could marry overnight) and the smells came wafting up the stairs to my room. It just smelled so delicious that I promised myself I would try it at dinner. Of course, it's always lived up to my expectations. Oh, except the pearl onions in this particular rendition were a little undercooked, but that was my fault since I was in charge of the onion and mushroom sauce bit. Shame.

Ah, and finally, family Christmas. We'd all been to a late turkey lunch, so dinner was mostly soup and snacks. But check out that gouda, straight from the Netherlands! Also, the second salmon terrine.

And of course, Talia tries some bean dip. The chips were ok, but the bean dip "accidentally" fell into her bowl and stayed there. More for the rest of us!

Most of Christmas was just me and my mom. One of the first things I did when I got home (after snuggling the dog) was download Love, Actually and force her to watch it. I was so happy she enjoyed it since, ignoring the blatantly romantic bits, the movie always reminds me of her. Maybe because she always picks me up from the airport. Or maybe because Christmas just wouldn't be Christmas without her.