angry chicken

very small Stonehenges

We are studying the Stone/Bronze/Iron Age right now and had a lot of fun making small Stonehenges.

We got this idea over at the BBC website in the Hands on History section. There are so many great resources on this site, I spend a lot of time there. There's an interactive game where you can built a fire, bake bread, and spin wool in the Iron Age. It's really fascinating. I'm going to try and have us do these activities for real, but I sense disaster. It should be fun. I need to find some soft-ish rocks and do more research.

I printed some out-of-scale grass for the ground. We decided the too-big grass was an nice artistic touch. We had a gluing mishap—air dry clay and hot glue are not friends. They totally ignore each other and don't stick at all. So, the white glue came out and it worked just fine. We have been using flashlights to cast shadows on these after learning all about Stonehenge and how the stones aligned with the sun on the solstices. We really enjoyed this video, BBC Operation Stonehenge.

I had to try and find the scene in This is Spinal Tap when the mini-Stonehenge gets lowered on the stage and couldn't find the clip, but did find this—Nigel Tufnel on why aliens didn't build Stonehenge which killed us! I had no idea these clips existed and they are really funny.

Sante Fe Trip: Food

 

Thank you all so much for your food tips in Santa Fe. It was a wonderful city to eat in and one of the perks of traveling alone is I could eat whatever I wanted whenever I wanted. The downside is that I couldn't sample what everyone else was eating, experiencing more of the menu. Hardly a thing to complain about, but you know what I mean. This lovely blue corn waffle was one of the amazing breakfasts served at the B&B I stayed at, The Madeleine Inn. They served a delicious hot dish daily, along with fruit, homemade granola, and tea breads, all of which were outstanding. I was able to eat outside every morning. I loved my room, the other guests, and everyone that worked there. It was the perfect escape.

This amazing drinking chocolate was from Kakawa Chocolate House. I went for the darkest and least sweet one, with a lot of chile. It was so good—hard to even describe. This was after a long day of looking in galleries. I remember my feet hurt and the chocolate made it all better.

This was one of my favorite meals—from the restaurant at the spa 10,000 waves, called Izanami. This was one of the only times I was sad I was alone because I wanted to try everything on the menu and had no one to share with. I thought it was funny that I was having an incredible Japanese experience in Sante Fe, and then I found out the chef is from Portland. Ha! I spent 3 hours soaking, being scrubbed and pampered at the spa, and then hung out and ate outside for another hour. Heavenly!

Here's another amazing breakfast from the Madeleine Inn. Bread pudding with bacon.

La Boca is where I landed my first night out. It's tapas and was so good. This was a spicy shrimp dish. I was able to get in pretty much anywhere without reservations by sitting at the bar. I got some great tips that night on where to go from the super nice bartender.

Everyone said to go to Cafe Pasqual's and I am so glad I did. This was an amazing squash blossom salad.

Not pictured:

Fish tacos from La Choza, which were very tasty. I also ate at The Teahouse, which was good, but I was having walking mishaps on the deep and loose gravel.

Eating out alone (not just at a cafe or a casual place where you order at the counter) was really interesting. I refused to look at my phone (except to take photos) and just hung out. I think most couples there thought I was eavesdropping. I was. But I also chatted it was so great just talking to everyone. I was also a pleasure just staring off in to space so many times during the day, talking to no one at all. There are so many other places I wanted to try and didn't get to. Another a trip will be planned, for sure.

papier-mâché ghosts

We made these papier-mâché ghosts last week and finally got around to putting on the faces. I know I could type paper mache, but it's not as fun.

To make these:

• We made a paste (flour, water and white glue) first and made forms to cover to get the ghost shape.
• For the forms we crumpled up balls of newspaper and set them on a drinking glass.
• Then we covered all that with cling wrap.
• Then we draped that with newspaper wet with the glue/flour/water mixture, making the ghost shape, and finished with a glued-up layer of paper towels and let them dry.

These take a long time to dry because the paper towels hold so much moisture. After 2 days, I took them off the forms, they were still damp but could stand-up, and baked them in the oven at 200° for a few hours. I love how the paper towels give the ghost texture and also flare out at the base. When they were dry, we painted them white (we probably could have left them as is) and then drew on the faces. 

We still have the bones we made years ago and love them, and somehow they have still held up. I just saw these bone meringues I made in my archives, I should do that again!

fun with infographics

So, making these was all I was thinking about today.

I found this site, Piktochart, this morning while looking for a timeline of the stone/bronze/iron age (which is our new theme) and went on a brief detour. This took about 7 minutes to make. I was very focused. Now I want to make them for everything. This template was free, there is a pro version with a lot more options, but it's not cheap. Using the drag and drop graphics and text editor is addictive. I know I could do all this in Illustrator, but this is so easy! The girls can totally use this program, so I am thinking about having them make their own for various topics. Book reviews, history timelines, to-do lists, illustrated recipes, you know—all the stuff you can show with infographics. Pretty much anything. Their graphic design enthusiasm/interest might not match mine, I realize. Maybe I will chart that next.

a bear and a link

This is one of my favorite photos from my Santa Fe trip. It's from the Brasil and Arte Popular exhibit at the Museum of International Folk Art. It's a bear costume for Carnival. There was some information about how the bear is part of the celebration, and why. I think a fairy tale is involved. Now I can't remember what the deal is and my 5-second internet search gave me nothing. But I know there is a story behind it.

Unrelated to bears:

The whole family is riveted by these series of short animated videos teaching art history basics by Ydraw over at Khan Academy. They are drawn while they are narrated, which is mesmerizing, and are full of great information. And they are funny.

needle book

I stitched this little needle book for a friend's birthday back in August and was finally able to give it to her recently. I love small cross-stitch projects like this. I also love stitching monograms and letters with a small additional element, and kind of designing it as I go. I do need a chart for the letters, but the other element I kind of just make up . It's very freeing and these quicker projects give me some energy to go back to my longer ones. I might just work on needle books for a bit, I love the small scale. These over at mmmcrafts are outstanding.

On the boards— I have a desire to knit some mittens, which I have never done. I have some Halloween accessories to work on, but nothing major. I have some ideas for a new art print I want to make available in the shop, and I would like to start sewing a coat for myself. And new oils for the shop! Thank you for all your orders, I am testing the blemish oil now, along with the others.

Unrelated:

Over the weekend, we saw Beaverton Civic Theater's production of Into The Woods, and had such a good time. I think it's playing for one more week.

 

3 fish tacos of varying quality

This is a fish taco from my kitchen. I used fish fillets (from a box in the freezer) and then greens, my daikon/carrot pickle, a sriracha-crema drizzle, and salsa. They were delicious. I'm not above using fish sticks. Especially the fish fillet ones. I heated the corn tortilla (wrapped in a wet paper towel in the microwave) before making these. Over the years it took me awhile to figure out how the make the corn tortillas hot/moist enough and this works great.

These fish tacos are from Uno Mas. "Mojo de Ajo | Fresh Rockfish with
Garlic Lime Marinade". This description was taken from their menu. These are some of my favorite fish tacos in Portland. They are a bit more than their regular tacos ($3.75 instead of $2) and very tiny. I ate these a little too fast and was talking to a friend at the time so I can't remember just how good they were right now, but I know I liked them.

These are my favorite fish tacos at the moment, but the worst to eat. It's a favorite in concept only. They are the "street style" fish tacos from our neighborhood Safeway. It writes itself. You can get 4 tacos for about $5.50 or so. There are two different kinds here—the fish and the chicken. The fish taco used fish sticks (not a good kind) and had so much mango salsa it was hard to taste anything else. The chicken tacos were fine, but I wonder now if that was only contrast to the fish. Pete said they were good, but he was starving. I was thrilled to be living on the edge by ordering these. Nothing bad happened.

me = podcast interview on While She Naps

It was 6:00am my time when we recorded the podcast interview over at While She Naps. I'm on the left there, looking sleepy. (Photo by Amy Sly.) Abby interviewed Ellen Luckett Baker and me for episode #31 and I didn't even swear once. You can listen to the podcast by clicking here at the bottom of the page. Abby and Ellen have been blogging a long time and it was sure nice to reminisce with them about the good ol' days. Abby's epsiode list is pretty great—I'm flattered to be included in such good company. Abby provides so many great resources on her blog and has contributed so much to the sewing/crafting/business of things over the years, it's amazing. This piece on How to Get Started Podcasting is next on my list to read.

Abby also has a feature on her blog where she asks artists and designers what book or pattern changed their life and I got all verklempt when Melissa Quaal said, for her, it was my first sewing book. This warmed my heart and made me smile all day.

facial oils for changing seasons

Fall is here and I am noticing my skin is drinking up the facial oils I make. I don't need them as much in the summer, but right about now, I just soak the moisture up. I have been selling these oils for a few years now (you can read all about them in this blog post) and they are rock solid. I'm really proud of them. I had a wonderful facial recently and the esthetician was very complementary of my skin and asked what I used— I was so happy to tell her it's what I make.

For my skin, I like to switch between the Restorative and the Nourishing blend. For my hands, I keep an extra Cuticle Oil in my car, which is when I notice how dry my nails are. I'm not sure why. It also makes the car smell nice. The car doen't always smell nice. And I keep a bottle of the Tension Relif Oil in my bag, for that out-in-the-world tension which seems to come up.

This Treatment Oil for Eyes has been a multi-tasker lately. I have been using it not just under my eyes but on my eyelid where I had a little dry patch. It cleared it right up. My Mom uses this between her eyebrows for dry patches she gets in the fall and it works like charm.

Another use for an oil— when Pete was growing his beard, he was getting ingrown hairs and bumps and he got obsessed with the Fortifying Hair Oil using it as a beard oil (it also has  a nice woodsy smell which guys dig) to condition his facial hair and help with skin sensitivities. He said it was amazing and got instant relief with skin itchies while softening his beard. Beard is such a funny word.

I think about adding more products to this line, but to be honest, I'm so happy with what I sell and have been using it for so long, I just don't know what else would be needed. There are three products I use but don't sell that I really like: a roll-on blemish oil (this was developed for the girls to be extra gentle) a cleansing oil, and a facial mist. And now I'm thinking of making a dedicated Beard Oil, (I'd just push the Fortifying Hair Oil but the label has a lady on it, which is probably not the best marketing for a beard oil.) I also wear a wonderful perfume oil that I've blended that I could sell which is so very earthy-hippie—I just love it.

Any thoughts? Would you all be interested in these?