A Year of Making

January 19th, 2015 In the last nine days, I have made some things--mostly failures. A sweater I have to tear part of out, a loaf from a muffin recipe that burned on the outside, and a carrot cake for my hubby's birthday that I forgot to photograph and is now gone. The sweater was multiple days of work and I will try to tackle it again, but today I wanted a win. I've been saving this recipe for Red Wine Hot Chocolate and let me tell you, it is a delightful success at the end of a long weekend. Not a surprise, as chocolate and red wine are notoriously paired time and again. You can find many recipes through google, but the one I made is here: http://www.mnn.com/food/beverages/blogs/what-to-drink-this-weekend-red-wine-hot-chocolate

January 10th, 2015 Made a few toddler clip-on ties! They're pretty adorable and clip on easily for comfort.

January 9th, 2015 Made another cotton tie today. Working on my inventory slowly after work to launch on Etsy soon!

January 8th, 2014 I stitched the baby blanket I've been working on together with crochet stitched and white yarn.

Wednesday, January 7th, 2015 Continued work on the baby blanket. More knit squares! Should be finished soon.

January 6th, 2015 Today I made Kimchi! It's a Korean spicy, fermented food made of mostly cabbage (but people use all kinds of vegetables) and a special Korean red pepper powder. It has to ferment for a few days before we can eat it, but I can't wait! The recipe I followed (which was super easy and had photos of everything you need) is courtesy of: http://www.thekitchn.com/how-to-make-cabbage-kimchi-cooking-lessons-from-the-kitchn-189390

January 5th, 2014 Today, I made a tie. This terrible photo was taken with the front camera of my cell phone propped against the wall with a timer because my husband wasn't home to take a good photo of me. Pretty good attempt for my second tie (the first tie I made was for my husband for our wedding). It's my plan to make affordable, cotton ties to sell on Etsy, for both adults and children and for all genders. I loved ties as a teen and hope to spread the love to future generations.

January 4th, 2015 Today I continued work on a baby blanket for my cousin. I switched up the yarn for a change of color (they didn't have a gray in the previous yarn) and also consistency to stimulate the senses.

January 3rd, 2015 I make chicken jerky in our dehydrator. I'm posting this the next day because it finished late last night. This jerky was pretty good for my first try and is not only safe for humans, but also for pets! Check out the recipe here: http://www.yankeekitchenninja.com/2011/10/chicken-jerky-recipe.html

January 2nd, 2015 Today I made oatmeal brown sugar muffins. We keep a stock of old fashioned oats in our home and rarely actually use it for making oatmeal. I tend to use it the most in trying new, healthy muffin recipes, fridge oatmeal, or french oat cakes (like a pancake made of oatmeal that tastes like french toast!). The recipe I followed for this muffin recipe is basic, super easy, and could be customized to include other ingredients you like such as banana, blueberries, or chocolate chips. You can find the recipe here: http://www.tasteofhome.com/recipes/brown-sugar-oat-muffins

I used the Ultimate Sweater knitting machine to knit two squares for a baby blanket. While this is much faster than conventional knitting, it still is time consuming and often frustrating, especially with a chunky yarn. The machine often jams or the tension is so tight, the purple cartridge (as seen above) doesn't want to move over the needles. But when it goes, the knitting goes super fast and makes it easier to whip up a basic blanket! The blanket is for my cousin who is due with her second boy at the end of the month.

I love Sundays.

Marigolds from our garden, brightening up our Halloween. http://etsy.me/19bqCDh