New stuff happening.

Rocket Boat is a new project by someone I hold very close to my heart. I hope you enjoy it!

2012. Let's go.

We had an amazing trip to Colorado and I'm getting ready to do some new work -- knitting, decoupage under glass, baking experiments, I may even learn to quilt and silkscreen. Winter is a new beginning, right?

I've become sort of obsessed with instagram -- basically a photoblogging program for mobile phones. I love seeing what people all over the world are seeing -- here's what I see. I also love pinterest -- a site aggregates member's interests and likes into boards. Here's mine. And have you used spotify yet? Very cool. I still love twitter and facebook, but I find that I use these other options far more often. They've kind of taken the place of this blog. One of my goals for the new year is to change that -- to figure out a way to use this space most effectively. I hope you'll come along for the ride.

My first question for you in 2012: are you doing thing-a-day this year? So far, there haven't been any posts about it, and the main page of the site is littered with spam emails (heeheehee -- they're kind of funny.) It usually begins on February 1, but I'm undecided about continuing this time. I could use some persuasion (and I'm surprisingly easily persuaded), so if you're doing it and want company, let me know...

You cannot be sad...

when you have ice cream.

Make It: Canteloupe Two Ways

So Maggie has been begging to cook in the way that only six-year olds can beg. I remember doing the same thing to my mom, so it's kind of a proud moment. The only problem? She wants to make cakes or crepes or bread, and our old house tends to hold kitchen heat in the summer. My solution? Something frozen. And healthy. That doesn't require a ton of ingredients. Here's something that has just three ingredients (four if you want to get fancy) and can be mature or immature, depending on how you feel. (We did a bit of both.)

I give you...Canteloupe Granita & Popsicles.

(makes six popsicles and a few cups of granita)

1 medium canteloupe, cut in chunks

juice of 1 lemon

1/3 cup sugar (more or less, depending on the fruit and your preferences)

red seedless grapes, cut in half (that's the fancy part)

In a blender, puree the canteloupe, lemon juice and sugar until very smooth.

For the popsicles: Place a few grapes in the bottom of each popsicle mold, then carefully fill the molds with the pureed canteloupe, close the molds and freeze until solid. Warm the mold exteriors with your hands or run under warm water for a few seconds to make unmolding easy.

For the granita: Pour the remaining puree and grapes into a shallow dish and freeze. Mix with a fork every 30-45 minutes to keep the mixture relatively smooth (otherwise you end up with a big flat popsicle.)

That's it. So simple a six-year old can do it.

Things you can cook at 120f

Did you know that you can cook steaks to rare at 120f?

And smoke prime rib. And jerky. And tofurkey.

Eggs, duh.

Fancy lobster ravioli? Mais oui.

Sous vide? You betcha. Roast cocoa nibs.

Fudge. You can make fudge. And jam. And cookies.

Dehydrated meals, too.

You can also get rid of bedbugs by heating them for one minute in your dryer to 120f. And you can proof yeast.

There's a book about torture where people are tied up in 120f heat. It's called HELL ON EARTH.

The upside? Tomorrow is supposed to be worse. (Also, it's only noon. This afternoon will also be worse. Worse. Worse.)

Cleaning up & moving on.

I've developed a worry. I worry that I'm something of a hoarder. Proof? You should see my yarn stash. Or the thousands of photo files on my hard drive. Or the decade of back issues of Martha Stewart and Print magazines.

While no one will get injured by falling piles while in my home, I do worry that I keep stuff that I just don't need. One of those things: blogs. So today, I've deleted two of my blogs, ChvChick and PunkRockGardenClub. It was a bittersweet decision, but here's my thinking...

If you're a Cheverly resident, you're aware that CheverlyExchange (the listserv) has grown into a big information/opinion hub. When we (Stella Scott, Liz O'Leary, Katie Troyner and I) started the blog, it was in response to the main Cheverly blog (ChvBlog) -- there was no Exchange, there wasn't really a way to pose different points of view (other than comments, but we wanted more.) It was fun for a while, then posts dropped off, then we thought about changing the direction, but it never really took. And now, with Stella and ChvBlog co-founder Dan moving away, it seems like the right time to put ChvChick to bed. It was a good run. We still have each other. I love you guys.

I also closed PunkRockGardenClub today, in favor of concentrating on things that are closer to my heart. Maybe someday I'll revive something like it, but it's not in the cards right now. I still love DIY (if you know me, you know that) and I'l always try to figure out a creative solution before buying, but I've felt guilty about not posting too much about this one.

So there. Some cleaning. Now, about that yarn stash...

July. July.

We had an amazing time in Massachusetts. Amazing. Our second year at Solid Sound was phenomenal (even drenched) and I've developed a deep love for Thurston Moore's solo work. Also, a deep love for Western Mass. Surprise, surprise, I took tons of photos of decay and rust and chickens and people, and came back ready to make stuff again (I was a little worn out.)

One of the things I love best about rural Massachusetts? People don't ask what you do. In the DC area, within the first five minutes, most conversations wind up at "Where do you work? What do you do?" There, I asked people twice, but no one ever asked me. Refreshing, especially since I always feel like a fish out of water. It's hard to explain what I do, beyond "I make stuff". I think that if you aren't constantly trying to validate your position, it's a lot easier to get on with actually doing. I aim to find out.

And I want to figure out how to cobble together some sort of career that I don't need to explain to anyone. That's my new goal. Also, I want a pony. Or a really big dog.