Halloween Pumpkin

I still have my Halloween pumpkin from last year.

I bought him in mid-October 2008, never carved him, rested him by my (non-working) fireplace on the cool tile floors, and he's still as fresh and firm as if I'd brought him home yesterday.


He continually reminds me of Patchy Pumpkin, but I just refer to him as Mr. Pumpkin. I'm going to keep him around indefinitely, and only throw him out should he start to rot. However, I expect he'll simply dry up in which case he'll be around forever as I'm an extremely, oddly sentimental person. Decades from now he'll probably be rested on my old lady desk.

License Plate Upcycle

Due to an unfortunate incident causing me to feel the full brunt of the Brazil-like world we live in, I have several license plates. At least one of the plates was still current and I felt really frustrated that it would become moot following its replacement with a plate from another state.

At some point I had this idea to use my plates as desktop mail/paper files. This is a simple project that takes less than 15 minutes, makes clever use of old/irrelevant license plate(s), and will help organize your desk.

For this project you will need: a license plate, a ruler, and a permanent marker.

In general a license plate is about 12 inches wide. Using your ruler, measure across the width of the license plate at 5" and 7". This 2" space will be the base of the file. I put small marks at the top, center and bottom of my plate so that I get a nice straight edge.

Place your ruler or other sturdy edge along the inside (what will be the base of the file) of one set of marks and make sure your ruler is lined up with the marks.

A license plate is easily bended. Using your ruler as a guide, bend one side of the plate about 45 degrees. We're only going to bend halfway so that there will be room to position your hand to bend the other side.

Next place your ruler along the inside of the second set of marks and use your fingers as shown above to hold the ruler and bend the other side about 45 degrees.

Now you have a "U" shape. To finish the file work the sides to a vertical position so that you create a little file. The bottom corners will have a nice rounded shape.

To get the right shape I press down on the top of one side of the file against a hard surface and then rapidly bend the other side back and forth about 1" in both directions. This helps to work the metal into the right shape. You could also use clamps to clamp the base of the file to a desk and then work the sides into the right form.

Ta da! This little file also works well to hold CDs. Here is one of the files in use on my desk.
(Alternately, you could bend the plates in half and use them as book ends.)

Springtime

Appy polly loggies for I've been very neglectful. I've been both horribly, terribly bored and uninspired; and dreadfully busy and motivated. But alas no time for ye olde blog. But once again, I have both the time, inspiration and motivation to blog about making stuff. As a prelude, please watch the video below of three of my cats totally going to town on the cat grass I planted for them from seed ("cat grass seed").



One of my favorite parts is that you can hear them nomm-ing on the grass.

The grass is extremely easy to grow and "cat grass seed" can be found at any pet supply store. In general, "cat grass seed" is just "oat grass seed" so you could just buy oat grass seed. My theory is that oat grass seed is cheaper because "cat grass seed" sounds fancy and specialized. Marketing.

A good tip for planting these (very hardy) seeds is to cover the pot with plastic cling wrap or some other plastic to created a humid space for the seeds to sprout. Don't leave it on once the seeds have sprouted or they will get crushed*. Another alternative are those shower cap style food covers or an actual, CLEAR shower cap (Accept the complimentary one next time you stay in a hotel, keep it, use it to sprout seeds.)

Grass in general is a very resilient plant. Keep this cat grass watered with some regularity and it will remain green and healthy through the bulk of its lifespan. I can't tell you from experience how long uneaten grass will grow. I try to limit my cats' access to the grass so that it grows for a long time and they can enjoy it more.

Additionally, if you have no grass-eating pets, I think that pots of fresh green grass look very fresh and clean.

*Or not. Actually, I covered my seeds with a used and resued large Ziplock-style bag and secured it with a large, stretchy headband. In truth the seal wasn't very tight as the plastic was too thick to be contained by the headband. I checked the seeds after a few days to check their progress and they were just sprouting. I took a look again after about 36 hours and the grass has shot up about 3 inches and pushed the plastic off the pot and sent the stretchy headband across the room. BOING!

Loops On Sticks

I've tried in vain and have each time ended up frustrated trying to learn how to knit. It's all loops on sticks (albeit beautiful bamboo sticks) to me. Not being able to maintain even tension is a major issue.

But it hasn't dampened my adoration for beautiful knits or for those who can knit, and knit original things. (While adoring, I'm still completely green with envy!)

Need. This. Owl. Sweater. To. Continue. Living.

One such AMAZING knitted piece is this incredibly creative and adorable owl sweater by Kate whose blog is called Needled. It makes me want to try knitting again because there is a free pattern available for the sweater at the blog.

10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1 . . . .

Happy New Year, dudes!

Chicken Noodle Soup with Sweet Potato

Chicken Noodle Soup with Sweet Potato

I was inspired to make chicken noodle soup with sweet potato after seeing a recipe for sweet potato and chicken stew; the combination of sweet potato and rosemary sounded really good. This soup is full of fresh vegetables and the sweet potatoes delicate sweet taste goes very well with rosemary.

Chicken Noodle Soup with Sweet Potato

1 large sweet potato, peeled and cut in chunks
2 ribs celery, diced
2 carrots, scrubbed, peels on and diced
1 can (13 oz) cooked chicken breast in water
1 C water
1 box (32 oz) chicken broth
1 T bacon/ham pieces (I used Hormel Real Bacon with Picnic Bacon pieces)
1 C rotini pasta
2 T olive oil
Diced garlic, to taste
1/2 t minced fresh rosemary
1 T vinegar
Onion powder, to taste
Salt and pepper, to taste

Put olive oil, garlic, celery, carrot, and sweet potato in a soup pot over medium heat. Combine to coat vegetables. Cook until celery is tender, and the carrot and potato are beginning to soften. Then add bacon pieces and water; simmer.

Meanwhile add chicken with water to pot and break up large chunks of chicken. Next add rosemary, onion powder, salt and pepper. Combine ingredients, add pasta and combine again. Add broth and cook soup covered until vegetables and pasta are done then add vinegar and stir.

Just what the hell exactly is " taupe?"

I've thought my whole life that "taupe" was a color like "bone" or "off-white" in that it was a dull yellow, dirty color closer to a grayish beige or a mid-range "flesh" color.

And then after 26.2 years I've discovered that in fact, taupe is darker and more brown than that, and taupe is several dull colors ranging from my long-time notion of it through pink, lavender and brown.

It turns out that a taupe is a mole (the animal, not the skin lesion or measurement). And this mole comes in a few different colors (and actually, "taupe" comes from its Latin name and it isn't called a "taupe," it's called a mole).

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Taupe

And a Google image search for taupe shows me colors that I might just as easily call "khaki", "sand", "mauve", "flesh," or "brown."

Google Image Search: Taupe

I got on this taupe kick while shopping online for a good dress (or something) to wear on New Year's Eve. I was browsing Banana Republic and saw a dress labeled as "taupe" and scoffed at BR's ability to identify colors. A good scoff can be fun but finding your scoff was unjustified can sting. But not this time because apparently "taupe" is any color you want it to be. And furthermore, I'm still not sure that dress is "taupe." (The "purple" one is absolutely purple.)

I've been noticing things like this about color lately. Before Thanksgiving at work I discovered that me and my co-worker have totally different ideas of "sky blue." I think it's a light, but bright color -- you know, like the sky. The Crayola sky blue is a little too dull for my sky tastes. But my co-worker kept telling me I was using "teal."

Ok, teal is no where near sky blue. Teal is more green than turquoise, which is a shade greener than what I think of as "sky blue." And I wondered if it was that we had different ideas of what "sky blue" is (like my taupe revelation) OR that we were physically seeing the color differently.

Taupe.