Once Upon a Midnight Dreary

Happy Halloween everybody!  Are you dressed up?  After spending an exhausting day appropriately surrounded by mold and decay, I'm not actually dressed up tonight (except in my Halloween pjs and Little Miss Spooky shirt from Target...), but Mr. Pocket and I went to a Halloween party on Saturday, and... well, do you recognize me?

Not the least obeisance made he; not a minute stopped or stayed he;
But with mien of lord or lady, perched above my chamber door.
Perched upon a bust of Pallas, just above my chamber door,
Perched, and sat, and nothing more.

...

And the raven, never flitting, still is sitting, still is sitting
On the pallid bust of Pallas just above my chamber door...

 (Dunno how well you can see it, but behind me in that pic is a "trick or treat" garland that my mom made me :) )

You know how much I love a good Raven reference.  Ever notice that the Baltimore Ravens wear black and the only other color mentioned in the poem - purple?  

And the silken sad uncertain rustling of each purple curtain

Thrilled me---filled me with fantastic terrors never felt before... 

Their mascots used to be Edgar, Allen, and Poe.  Now there's only Poe, but it's ok because he's adorable:

If only the Ravens were playing Monday Night Football tonight.  That would be appropriate. 

So, are you giving out candy?  Are you giving out good candy?  We haven't gotten any trick or treaters, not that we expected many.  We only had a few KitKats left anyway.  I have no idea what happened to them...... Must've been eaten by ghosts....... or something.................... *innocent grin*

This is my I-didn't-eat-the-KitKats face :)

I Believe

I believe I've been away too long again.  But this time I have to get in before the deadline for Michelle's October Crusade.  The Crusade is all about what you believe in and who you are as an artist.  So I've thought about it off and on all month, and a few things stick with me.  I didn't get around to creating anything to show it all, but I can tell what I believe in and what makes me make stuff.

I believe in aesthetics.  I don't know anything about the whole philosophy of aesthetics, but what I mean is that I believe art should be attractive.  Sure, express yourself, make a statement, whatever.  Just make sure it looks good.  I'm willing to make exceptions for realistic depictions of things that aren't pretty to begin with (spectacular zombie makeup, for example), but really, there's enough ugliness in the world.  I believe in using our powers for improvement.

I believe in the power of art.  Art in its many forms can be cathartic, uplifting, depressing, any number of emotional influences.  I like it best when it puts a smile on my face, but any effect a piece of art has means it has an impact.  As previously stated, I believe we can and should use this power to improve the world, even if it just means giving someone something pleasing for a few minutes on a bad day.  Every little bit helps.

I believe in the power of little things.  That thing I just said about giving someone something pleasing... it doesn't make life suck less overall, but it certainly adds to the awesome column.  To put it better, in the words of The Doctor, "The good things don't always soften the bad things, but vice-versa, the bad things don't necessarily spoil the good things and make them unimportant."  This is something that I find difficult to keep in mind myself, but when I'm feeling grouchy about things, I try to remind myself of what I do have going for me.   When depression is getting the better of me, it's not the big abstract things that make me feel better - it's the little tangible things like a cup of tea, snuggling with my husband, re-reading a favorite book, or working on my art that make me smile.  Accumulating enough of those little things gets me through until I balance out again.  I guess if anybody is going to believe in the power of little things, it should be a tiny, pocket-sized person like myself.


A couple of parting notes.  In the same Doctor Who episode from which I pulled the previous quote, an art historian says the following about Vincent Van Gough, and it brought tears to my eyes because it said a lot about what I love about art: 


"He transformed the pain of his tormented life into ecstatic beauty. Pain is easy to portray, but to use your passion and pain to portray the ecstasy and joy and magnificence of our world, no one had ever done it before. Perhaps no one ever will again."


And lastly, this Cowboy mouth song really speaks to me and says a lot about my beliefs as well.  Take a listen, and see if you feel the same way.




P.S. If you've never listened to Cowboy Mouth, catch one of their shows when they're in town.  They just might change your life.

While there's Tea, there's Hope

I am a tea drinker.  Ever since I was a kid, I've loved tea.  Even worked in a tea shop during summers home from college (I still order tea from our wholesaler, now that they do retail too).  Now I don't drink as much as I used to when I worked at the shop, but I enjoy my morning cuppa at work, and sometimes take the time to settle down with a cup at home on the weekend.  And every now and then, I'm inspired to create tea-themed art.  Like a couple of weeks ago, when my mom told me about a new tea she'd gotten at Fresh Market.  It's a coconut-lime flavored black tea.  Wow.  Even before I'd tasted it, it took me away to imaginary plantations in the British West Indies or something.  And by the time I cut out of work and dashed off to my parents' house to play with paint to satisfy my sudden inspiration, I knew what I wanted to put together:

I took an 8"x8" canvas and brushed on a rich brown colored acrylic paint.  Then I dry-brushed on white and lime green in layers, laying down a custom-cut tea stalk mask in between a few of the layers to end up with that silhouette there to the right.

I tore some tissue paper and laid it down, lime green first (what Mom had was actually a bit pale, so I painted it first with some of the paint I had used on the canvas), then a layer of white, and lastly, a piece of kraft glassine that I'd crumpled to get some good texture on.  Then I glued down my little tea stalk.

The little bracket is a Tim Holtz thing, but the "Tea" sign in it is actually stamped from the very bottom of a Michelle Ward stamp that says "Love and scandal are the best sweeteners of tea."  I've had that stamp since before I even knew who Michelle was.  It was just what I needed for this, and I'm glad I know her now because I used a lot of her techniques here.  Sorry to rip you off, Michelle... I hope I've Made It My Own well enough :)  

To finish the edges of the canvas, I used Tim Holtz tissue tape.  It doesn't stick very well, so I had to glue the end down, but it works.  

In case you're wondering, the tea does taste as good as it sounds.  It's in teabags, though, so it could be better.  (Yes, I'm a loose tea snob, but I'm not entirely above using teabags.)

I've been enjoying more than just cups of tea, recently, too.  I've gotten back into reading the tea shop mystery novels written by Laura Childs.  They're wonderful cozy mysteries set in Charleston, with a sleuth who owns a charming tea shop.  Yesterday, when Mr. Pocket told me I needed to take a day to actually chill,  I decided I was going to enjoy the beautiful weather on our balcony and read my book.  But being me, I didn't just sit and do that.  I got myself a color-coordinated cup of tea.  See, I happen to have red flowers on our balcony.  And our chair cushions are red.  So I chose carefully from my ever-growing collection of tea cups and pots...

Actually, I need a few more to fill in the gaps...

Brewed myself some jasmine green tea (it was old and a little stale, but it was ok), and brought out my tea and my book:

P.S. The flower pot on the table is an oversized teacup.

I thought the strawberry teacup went well with the balcony.  Ok, it's a sickness.  I must color-coordinate.  But you know what?  I had a perfectly pleasant afternoon with my coordinating teacup and my cozy mystery.  I should do that more often.

Next post:  Michelle's new crusade, on naming colors or colorways.  Stay tuned!

Turn, Turn, Turn...

It's been much too long since I played along with Michelle Ward's street team.  I often meant to participate, but things kept getting in the way, and the month would pass and I would have not posted to meet the challenge.  This month, though, I can't miss it.  Michelle has asked her crusaders whether we notice a change in our palette or style with the changing seasons.  Well, my dear, the answer is YES.  That phrase from Ecclesiastes that the Byrds made so famous might as well have been written about me.  I am such a seasonal person that even my taste in music and food change.  I'm almost a different person in the spring than I am in the winter.  Jeans remain a wardrobe staple, but instead of dark sweaters and boots, I'm wearing them with bright colors, especially green and white, and with mary janes until it's warm enough for sandals.  I start listening to lighter, happier music.  I eat more veggies and drink green tea instead of black (though I do still like a good cuppa black tea to get me going in the morning).  The advent of cherry blossoms makes me gravitate towards Japanese art and motifs - this is when I re-watch Rurouni Kenshin and dig out my scraps of kimono silk that I've bought at quilt shows, thinking maybe this year I'll decide what to do with them.  And my art definitely looks different.  In my paper and mixed media art, red moves aside for green, compositions get more open and less cluttered, I use less hardware, I move from crosses and gears and hardware to flowers and birds and the occasional butterfly.  Last year I showed this tag, which I think is one of my favorites of every tag I've ever made:

Very simple, two background colors and two stamps.  But it just says spring to me.  When yarn crafting in spring, I spin lighter colors into thinner yarns, I gravitate towards lace patterns in both knit and crochet, and I generally only work with light or bright colors.  I wound off one of those skeins of yarn I got at the Homespun Yarn Party this year.  Guess which one?

The color's a little washed out in this picture, but it's Downy Oshun, Hon!  Baltimorean beachy glory.  I've started a crochet project with it, but I don't like how it's coming out so I might frog it and start over.  It just needs to be a light, lacy triangle scarf or shawlette.  The only trouble is that it's wool.  That's my other spring thing.  I'd love to be working with cotton or silk.  Unfortunately, all my favorite yarns in my favorite weights and colors turn out to be wool or some other warm fiber.  Oh well.  Air conditioning generally requires a warmer layer, so it'll do.

I wish I had more to show you.  This spring has been a little busy:

(Okay, I know, I'm a showoff. But isn't he cute?)

Plus, having moved, my ability to do paper and mixed media art has declined.  See, Mom and I share supplies, or at least we always did when I lived at home.  Now that Mr. Pocket and I are on our own, I haven't built up enough supplies in my new home to really feel like I can do much yet.  As I acquire more, I'll be able to put things together, but now pickings are still slim.  On top of that, I haven't felt the knit or crochet mojo as much, so that's not happening.  I definitely feel the need to create, though, so hopefully I'll build up more supplies or be able to spend some time at my parents' house enough to do some work.  I did house-sit for my parents one night last week, and this is what I came home with:

It's a bit of a transition piece, spring into summer.  Maybe later this week, I'll post about summer, because that's a bolder, brighter style for me than spring...

THIS...

...is what makes Mr. Pocket the best.

It was waiting for me on our bulletin board facing the door when I got home today.  +50 Good Mood.

Main Squeeze

As you've seen recently, I cannot do anything in the kitchen without making a huge mess.  Like tonight, when I pretty much spattered olive oil all over the stove frying sausage for dinner.  Well, Saturday morning, I had just cleaned the kitchen when Mr. Pocket and I proceeded to make a colossal mess.  You see, we had some lemons  and some limes, all of which we needed to use before they go bad.  And we have new citrus juicers.  So... when life gives you juicers, you make lemonade, right?

Yum.

That picture was taken after we'd each poured ourselves a glass.  It was a pretty tasty first batch of lemonade.  Next time, I'm gonna try and make lavender lemonade.

Now, Sunday, the post-party letdown was finally starting to creep up on me.  So Mr. Pocket packed me off to Mom's to do some crafting so I'd feel better.  I did feel better by the time I came home for his German relatives' birthday party.  His uncle and his other uncle's girlfriend have birthdays very close together, and since they're still here from the wedding, we were all celebrating both of them at his parents' house.  So I made a card for each of them:

His uncle's was very mechanical, because he used to make tools.  I had a lot of fun making it grungy and almost oily looking.

His uncle's girlfriend is very bright and cheerful and fun, so I knew I had to do something vibrant.  When I asked what her favorite color is, she answered yellow.  Oh no!  The one color of ink I don't have!  So I went with related colors, and did manage to find a paper with a little bit of yellow in it.

It was nice to be playing with papers and inks again.  Now I just need to get back to yarn, too.

I Do

Mr. Pocket and I are happy to announce that as of Saturday, 7 May 2011, we are officially married.  Looking forward to many many years this way :)

So, it's been pretty busy around here in the Pocket, what with getting married and all.  And that's without having done much DIY.  You would think, being the crafty soul that I am, I would've DIYed a ton of stuff for my wedding.  But no, cooler heads prevailed and I avoided that stress.  All I did myself was, as you saw in the last post, the guest book.  I did it with lots of help from my friends in the conservation lab at work, at lunchtime and after hours.  Couldn't have done it without them.  And now I have finished pics to show you, and time in which to post them...

I got the text block from A.Fain Books on Etsy.  Such a godsend, as I do not have a board cutter or a large paper cutter.  Though I did end up cutting new boards at work, on the recommendation of my friends in the lab.  The decorative papers for the covers and end papers, as well as the book cloth for the spine, came from Paper Source.

I love this green lokta paper.

The end bands were an ordeal.  I guess I should say that figuring out the end bands was an ordeal.  I couldn't remember how to do them from last year when I bound my first book (and until now, my only book).  So between asking my friend Vicki for her notes and scouring the internet, it took me a while to find the way I had done single-color end bands before.  Once I had it figured out, though, it was a breeze.  Used silk thread from Mom, sewn over the same tape that the text block is sewn onto.

Overall, I learned one very important lesson from making the guestbook for our wedding.  I love it and I need to do more bookbinding.

Be My Guest

Brief post this week.  Been hella busy with the last minute wedding stuff.  One of those things is legitimately crafty:  I'm binding our guestbook.  Slowly.  This is all I have done so far:

It's sewn and rounded.  I still have to sew endbands, back it, and actually attach the boards.  Oh, and cover it. So it's pretty.  I can do that in 18 days, right?

Best. Dinner. Ever.

Confession time:  I've been collecting recipes that I haven't been using.  I have every intention of cooking for real, but with all the stuff I end up doing after work, usually it's up to Mr. Pocket to throw something together.  Now, don't get me wrong, Mr. Pocket is quite the amateur chef.  But usually he improvises, so the recipies I've been collecting just don't get used.  Until now.  This is one that Mom gave me, because she'd tried it and loved it.  It came from Cooking Light, and the recipe is here.  You should try it.  Because oh my goodness, it's the best dinner we've cooked in the new place.  Mr. Pocket even said so.  I mean, look at this:

Mr. Pocket's second helping.

How can chicken, rosemary, thyme, potatoes, tomatoes, and olives ever be bad?  (Okay, sure, if one of those things is something you generally don't like, but aside from that.)  It's super easy, too.  And roasting might be my favorite way of cooking.  I don't care that it takes longer.  Really, try this recipe.  You'll thank me.

Meanwhile, an update from Mr. Pocket's World of Maille:

The dear gentleman hard at work.

There's been a lot of mailling going on.  He's working on a hauberk, as you see above, in stainless steel.  And he's been making some small items for friends out of aluminum rings and scale:

Gauntlet in progress...

Hiiiiya!

I, meanwhile, have lots of wedding things to do.  Pray for me that I get it all done in time!

Back with Needles

Finally!  PocketSize has come back to yarncraft! 

I'll forgive you if you don't get the reference. 

Anyway, with the apartment getting settled, I have gotten a little knitting time.  And with some small departmental meetings at work with people that know that I'm still paying attention, I've been able to crochet.  So I've got a sweet little project basket kickin'.

Want a closer look?  It's three shawls I'll show you, though one is only a few rows in.  I've been really wanting more shawls, so that's what I've been into making.  Here we go...

This one is Katika.  I had started it back before Christmas, and got several rows in, but then let it sit for months.  When I picked it up again last week, I dropped half a row and I realized I'd been leaving out an important yarn over for most of what I had done, so I ripped it back to the beginning and started over. 

 The yarn is Neighborhood Fiber Company in a one-off colorway.  I got it at last year's Homespun Yarn Party.  It's really nice and bouncy.

Next up, I'm finally knitting Damson.  I've been trying to settle on the perfect yarn for it, and even though it's a few yards shy of the required yardage, I'm using another yarn I got at last year's Homespun Yarn Party, from Ashton Studio Arts. 

Doesn't look much like a shawl in this pic, because I started it on the spur of the moment and grabbed straight needles to do so.  Now I really need to switch to circulars, because it's getting a bit heavy.

It was really hard to get the color of the yarn right, and even this shot isn't really accurate.  It's a gorgeous bluish lilac color. 

This last one is my travelling project, because it's very simple and easy to keep track of.  A couple weeks ago, I went to a yarn shop I hadn't been to before and they had Zauberball.  I'd never found a Zauberball before, but I wanted one.  So of course, one had to come home with me :)  I had such trouble deciding on colors that I realized that I don't have any really neutral shawls, so that's what I got:

The pattern is Eva's Shawl, and it's a really simple three-row repeat.  Which is what makes it ideal for department meetings and other times when I need relatively mindless work.

By next week I should have some bookbinding photos for you.  My only DIY project for the wedding...  So check back soon... :)

Homespun

It's been a long week, Pocketeers.  But I got to cap it off with the Homespun Yarn Party at Savage Mill.  I caught up with some dear friends and had a lot of fun.  And I even got to treat myself on a small budget :)  I'll let the pics do the talking...

The Sanguine Gryphon:

Snallygaster Fibers:



To be honest, I bought the "Downy Oshun, Hon" almost as much for the name as for the colors.  I almost bought a skein of "Bromo Seltzer Tower" too but managed to control myself.  What doesn't appear here is the skein of "Poppies in the Field" that I got for my mom from Space Cadet Creations.  But I'm sure she'll be posting pictures of what she makes with it pretty soon, because I happen to know she's excited to work with it :)

Also, I actually have some of my own handspun to show.  Finally.  Remember a couple weeks ago when I posted a pic of me spinning?  Here's what I was working on:

Merino in "Primrose."  I don't know who actually produces this, because it's one of a few blended rovings that a lot of vendors sell at MDSW.  If anybody knows where this ultimately comes from, please let me know.

Out of the Blue

Last weekend I moved my sewing machine and all my fabric to the new place.  I haven't sewn anything in ages, at least not beyond shortening pants.  And I needed something to wear with a dress I got for a friend's wedding.  So it was time to revisit an old design that I've been wanting to do again.  I had significant leftovers of blue silk noil from this SCA garb:

So I cut it into two long rectangles and started workin' my stitchy magic.

Stitchy stitchy...

And after a few hems and a couple of seams, I had a jacket :)  I even got to work on it at a craft night at a new friend's house.  Unfortunately, I don't have any finished object pics yet, because, well, it's not quite finished.  But this gives you an idea (from the back, before the side seams):

It's very... solid colored.  So it needs some embellishment, and I think I'm going to do some sashiko embroidery if I can find a border pattern I like.  And if I can decide on a thread color.  You know.  Little things like that.

Ironically, I ended up not wearing it to the wedding with the intended dress.  Turns out that I don't like the way the shape of it works with the dress.  Oh well.  I managed to find a perfect green pashmina really cheap at the mall, and it gives me more time to embellish the jacket ;)

Happy Pi Day!

To celebrate Pi Day, and to celebrate the two March birthdays in my office, my coworkers and I all made pies for lunch.  Mine was cherry.

Ok, so it was the easy way out, all I had to do was use Pillsbury pie crusts and a couple cans of cherry pie filling, but I'd been wanting cherry pie, so I finally had some.  I also had...

Mixed berry pie, banana cream pie, quiche, and pineapple/blueberry pudding pie.  There weren't as many different dishes as there once were at our office food days, but hey, there are only 5 people left in my department.  It was still quite delicious.  And there was a lot left over...

So this is a pretty short post, with not a lot to show.  But there will be more later this week, because I've started a sewing project.  Yay!  It's just a couple of lengths of fabric at the moment, but it'll be something much better in a couple of days.  Once I get my hands on an iron.  And the right color thread.  Hey, at least I've got my sewing machine.

Adventures in Cupcakery

Settle in, this one is long.  Today I spent all afternoon baking and icing cupcakes in preparation for our upcoming nuptuals.  See, two of my aunts are baking Mr. Pocket's and my wedding cake, and have been asking me what kind of cake we want.  My friend Joyce had posted a link last week to this blog:  http://flour-child.net/2011/02/14/happy-valentines-day/.  When she posted the link, I thought it looked so delicious and so festive that perhaps we could use that as our wedding cake recipe.  Since my aunts live across the country, I figured I'd test drive the recipe myself.  Mr. Pocket was very much in favor of this idea - he's generally in favor of any idea that comes with cupcakes.  We decided that since we had no idea what champagne icing would taste like, I would make a half batch of the champagne icing, and a half batch of plain buttercream.  That way, not all the cupcakes would be ruined if the champagne icing was awful.  So with a plan, a trip to the grocery store, and my new electric hand mixer, I was off...

And making a colossal mess.  Lowest setting on the hand mixer is "spray whatever you're mixing all over the place."  And I'm already incapable of baking anything without making a huge mess.  So I needed a solution.

Baking parchment to the rescue!

So now I was free to move about the mixing bowl without spraying the counter with butter and sugar.  Fantastic.  Rolling right along, I love baking, everything's great, I even found a way to keep my eggs from rolling all over the counter while I added them one-at-a-time:

Cozy?

No more problems, the batter comes together beautifully (and quite tastily, as of course I had to taste-test as I went along) and I'm filling the cupcake cups...

w00t!

And... oops.  Dropped the spoon.  And it bounced off my shoe on the way to the floor.  Don't worry, I got a clean one to continue filling cupcake cups.

"Cleanup, aisle me."

So I got the cupcakes in the oven and they're baking happily away and I even managed to cope with my stunning lack of cooling racks (2 small ones is not enough for 31 cupcakes, in case you've ever wondered).  Cupcake mixing bowls and utensils are all clean so now it's time to rock out with the icing, right?  So on to the cheap champagne...

This stuff had a screw cap.  Oh well.  I got it free, regifted from one of Mr. Pocket's coworkers.  What could I expect?

So you're supposed to boil the champagne to reduce it to a super thick, super concentrated, syrupy sort of stuff.  Mmm.  Kind of disgusting by itself, actually.  But I got the bubbly bubbling away on the stove...

Bubble, bubble, toil and... nevermind.

And while that's going and then cooling, I proceed to follow the blogger's directions for the basic buttercream icing that it's to be added to.  Butter, powdered sugar, whisk attatchment, ok, here we go...

Oh, dear.  What ensued was what I have dubbed "The Great Buttercreamsplosiontastrophe of 2011."  An event that shall live in infamy.

Say it with me, folks:  Fail-boat!

So, I did what any self-respecting inexperienced baker with a problem she can't quite solve would do:  I called my mother.  Apparently, using a whisk for anything involving butter is a less-than-awesome idea.  Instead of starting over entirely and wasting 2 sticks of butter and 2.5 cups of powdered sugar (at least, more of them than was all over the counter, cabinets, stovetop, wall, toaster, sugar boxes... you get the idea), I switched to the beater attachments and tried to salvage it, per Mom's advice.  My mother is a genius, because it worked.  The butter and sugar creamed together, and I was able to add the champagne-syrup-stuff.

Isn't it a pretty color?

Well, the finished icing was more butter and champagne than anything else (even after I added more sugar), but it successfully covered the cupcakes:

Ta-Daa!

The half-batch of normal buttercream icing, following the instructions on the box of sugar, was a far less eventful experience.  I may have added a little too much milk, which may have been due to just wanting to be finished and therefore just eyeballing the quantity of milk, but it tastes good and wasn't too runny even if I did add perhaps a splash more milk than I should have.

YUM.

Behold the cupcake. 



The final verdict is that the strawberry cupcake recipe is a keeper, but the jury is hung up on the icing.  It's good, but also kinda weird.  I might have to try it with a slightly less cheap champagne and see if it's better.  I actually am really tempted to try it with a still wine instead, specifically Riesling, because that's my favorite and I think it goes nicely with strawberries :)  For now, though, Mr. Pocket and I are enjoying these little cuppiecakes just the way they are.

Well, maybe I could add a strawberry on top...