Oh, did we tell you that we're crazy?

   Okay, so you're thinking to yourself, "Why is she dressed like the Grim Reaper?"

   No?

   A Ringwraith?

   Maybe a Bene Gesserit?

   The fact that I can jump easily from Tolkien to Herbert should clue you in to the kind of nerd I am, but instead of jumping from High Fantsay to Science Fiction, let's land squarely between the two.

My childhood began and ended with Star Wars. I was 6 years old in May of 1977. By 1980, it was official: I wanted to be Princess Leia when I grew up. I will stop, now, and not bore you with the details, but suffice it to say, I did a fairly credible job of it for a little girl on a farm in Arkansas. It helped that in some bizarre twist of the universe, I was the only little girl in my family during the 70s and 80s, so it was very easy to be a princess, then. I am married now, with three sons and two cats (both male), so it's still easy to be a princess.    
   
   Currently, you are saying to yourself, "I'm no expert on Star Wars, but I'm pretty sure that's not a Princess Leia costume", and you're correct (by the way, I know a Star Wars expert. He's one of my very good friends, and we'll talk more about him in paragraph or so). The wonders of the Star Wars Universe are ever expanding, and thankfully populated with more women, now, who (also thankfully) don't all wear metal bikinis or spandex jumpsuits (I'm a bit fluffy for that). I read Splinter of the Mind's Eye when I was in 4th grade. I was reading Timothy Zahn when my first child was born. I've not read all the EU (that's Expanded Universe for those not hip to the lingo) novels, but I have read a fair amount of them. We have most of the video games in house, too. Anyway, from this expanded universe comes the costume I am currently working on, Darth Traya.

      I began the concept work on this costume in September 2011. It started with a text from the above mentioned Star Wars expert, that I should do a 501st Costume. Who? I countered. A Sith! Was the response. So after several more texts back and forth as we drove through a rainstorm on the way back from Dragon*Con, I settled on Darth Traya. The first couple of months was costume research and putting together a binder of all the standards to which one must adhere in the making of a costume deemed acceptable by the 501st. In December, I started collecting supplies. By February, I began the sewing. Now, I am almost done. Just a bit of leather work and final touches before it's ready to submit the pictures. And now I realize these pictures are a bit outdated. I've already done alterations from here. I'll have to get those up, soon.

If you're fabulously interested in knowing more about her, you can visit here: http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/Darth_Traya

Oh, and "What's the 501st?"

Look here: http://www.501st.com/

Who is the Star Wars Expert you were talking about?

Look here: http://www.nerdneerdowell.com/

     

Saying goodbye to the school year

     My son had a great year in 4th grade, and I wanted to put together something fun for his teacher on the last day of school.  She's a scrapbooker, so I knew a chance to stock up on supplies would be welcome.  Just stuffing a gift card into a greeting card seemed like a lame idea, though, so I made her this!

     It was very easy, and I think it turned out super cute!  I picked up a couple little packs of monogram stationary and the aforementioned gift card.  Then, while at Michaels, I picked up the odds and ends that went together to create the project:

•  A small flower pot
• A package of glittered Styrofoam balls
• 1 larger Styrofoam ball
• a few silk flowers

At home, I already had:

• wooden skewers
• colored card stock paper
• hot glue gun and glue sticks
 
     I purchased the pot already painted, but you could get a plain one and paint it yourself.  I printed some words and phrases that described the teacher and the class with the same letter as her monogram in a fancy font, used some decorative scissors to snip them out, and then backed them with the colored card stock paper. 
     I topped the flower heads off the stems of the silk flowers, and then using the hot glue, I glued the skewers to the backs of the flowers, the little stationary packs, the word cards, and the gift card. 
     While those were cooling, I glued the larger Styrofoam ball into the bottom of the flower pot.  Then I stuck the decorated skewers into the flowerpot in a "flower arrangement".  I used the small glittered Styrofoam balls as filler around the skewers to cover the foam ball and fill the pot.
      I can faithfully report that his teacher was very happy with the surprise!
 
-E

 

Well, it doesn't get any better than this...

Chocolate.

Hearken back to those many hundreds of years ago, when the Conquistadors brought back a ship load of magic beans instead of gold, and the kings and queens gazed upon their awesomeness and said, "So......what do we do with these?"

*crickets*

Those Europeans learned their value soon enough, though, and the deliciousness hurtled down through the centuries until this very time.  The time I have made Chocolate Mini-Tarts.

Start with pie crust.  You can make your own or use store bought.  I was in a hurry to make a batch to these for a school luncheon, so I opted for buying pie crust dough from the dairy case at the store.

I rolled it out a little flatter, and just used a clean plastic cup to cut out circles.  One crust made about 7.

I tucked the little crust rounds into muffin tins and filled them with pie weights to blind bake the crusts according to the package directions.

Here are the little crust cups, all baked and ready to fill.  The colors are a bit off in this picture.  My 10 year old was acting as photographer for this project, and he had a brief lapse of flash know-how.

Once cool enough to handle, I put a dollop of Dulce de leche in the bottom of each cup and spread it over the bottom of the crust.  This is optional, but I have to tell you, it tasted great!

For the chocolate filling, I used a whole bag of Ghirardelli Semi-sweet morsels.  I poured 1.5 cups of hot cream over the morsels and whisked until the chocolate had melted (this is basically making a ganache).  For extra flavor, you could add a tablespoon of your favorite liqueur.
Let them set in the fridge, then top with whipped cream as you serve them.

So simple.  Really Yummy.



So you'll need:
Pie Crust, bought or make your own!

A bag of semi-sweet morsels
1.5 cups cream
Dulce de leche, small can will do it, or make your own!
1 Tbsp liqueur, optional

Cut pie crusts to fit muffin tins, then blind bake them according to directions.  Let cool.

If filling, put your Dulce de leche in the bottoms of the pie crust cups.

If using liqueur, drizzle one tablespoon of chosen flavor over the chocolate morsels in a mixing bowl.
Heat cream to just before boiling, pour over chocolate morsels and whisk until smooth.
Pour into cups to desired fullness.
Chill until set.
Top with whipped cream as you serve them.

Rain, Rain, Go Away! and it did!

It rained all night on Friday night, and when I got up at oh-too-early:30 on Saturday morning, outside it sounded like monsoon season in the tropical rainforest.
Drat.
Checked the Weather Channel, and it was supposed to clear off by lunchtime.
Time to roll the dice, and I continued with plans to do this dinner as a garden party.  My husband and I had a fundamental laspe of communication at around 11am, as he tried to explain to me that making people eat the supper in the cold rain would be frowned upon by the Gods of Hospitality. 
"What rain?  It's not going to rain."
"It's raining right now."
[I do the Jedi mind trick wave]
"There will be no rain."
And, then he went back out into the rain to finish getting the tables and chairs out of storage.
The rain stopped about 2pm, and the sun came out! Hooray!

So, the dinner went off without a hitch (well, maybe one small hitch).

Brisket, grilled jerk chicken, baked potato salad, Carolina slaw, corn on the cob, Mexican confetti salad, minature chocolate tarts, and pineapple upside-down cupcakes.  Yum!

So many of these recipes I will make again.  They turn out so well to feed many and are genuinely tasty.

The Carolina slaw recipe can be found here.

The pineapple upside-down cupcake recipe can be found here. 

The pineapple upside-down cupcakes were very yummy, and fairly photogenic, as well.

 I am making the mini chocolate tarts again this week, and will blog about those with pictures and recipe, as they are my own creation!

And now, the Mexican Confetti Salad!

This recipe is really simple and so darn tasty.  It's vegetarian, too!

Dressing:

• The juice of two fresh limes
• 1/4 cup white wine vinegar
• 1/4 cup safflower oil
• a couple spoons of sugar
• a handful of fresh cilantro, chopped
• a dash of salt

Ingredients:

• 1 can white shoepeg corn, drained
• 1 can black beans, drained and rinsed
• 1 can peeled petite diced tomatoes, drained and squeeze to remove as much liquid as possible
• About 1/4 to 1/2 cup minced sweet yellow onion.  Vidalia if you can get it!
• About 2 jalapenos, deseeded and minced
• About 3 large cloves of garlic, minced
• Optional, 2 avacadoes, peeled and diced small.

Mix the dressing in a separate bowl and play with the amounts until you get the sugar/vinegar to your taste.  The amounts I quoted above are approximate.
One you get your dressing to your liking, tastewise, dump all the other ingredients in a bowl, cover with the dressing, stir it up and refrigerate it for a couple hours.
Serve with tortilla scoops!

Calm before the storm... literally according to NOAA

This weekend is Supper Club Weekend!  My excitement is tempered only slightly by the fact that it's my turn to host it: Sixteen adults, six or so children, depending on how the teenagers decide to spend their evening.

What is this supper club of which I speak? Well, about a year and a half ago, one of our friends decided he wanted to have a "Supper Club" - a group of a few families of close friends who gather once a month for food and fun.  It's been going strong in that time, and we've done everything from themed murder mystery dinners to vacation slide shows.  A bit corny at times, yes, but this is an awesome group that has traveled together, worked together, and even lived together (Camping!  Weekend cabins on the lake!) for short periods of time.  It falls to a different family each month to host, and that family provides all the food and drink.  With six families in the core group, it works out to about twice a year hosting duties.

So back to the calm.  My grocery shopping is done.  The menu is planned.  The house cleaning is on pace to be completed, and the gardening is, too.  To my dismay, though, NOAA.gov has decided to tell me it's probably going to thunderstorm on my fantastic garden party barbecue. Sadface.

To cheer myself up about the possible rainy day, I am posting a picture of my Victorian plant stand herb garden.  It is just cheerful looking!

The cilantro doesn't know it yet, but it's going to get a severe trim

to help out  with the Mexican Salad on Saturday.

-E

Cabbaging onto Treasure

Have you ever thought about old windows?  The sash kind with the weights in the wall pocket and the glass panes in the wooden frames?  They are both more complex than given credit and simpler to repair than you'd think.
I am proud to say that I have successfully repaired a few of these babies complete with reglazing glass and restringing weights.  Not for the faint-hearted, but not terribly technical.
It involves crowbars, so my husband had a good time.

There comes a time, though, when you just can't face doing a whole house full of them in a short amount of time.  This was the decision my neighbors made when selling their house.  They decided it was more realistic to simply replace the windows than repair them.  I was okay with their decision since A) It's not my house and 2) I cabbaged onto one of the old windows before the contractors hauled them off to the dump.

I hauled out my scrapers, my paints, my stencils, and glue gun.  I purchased a few odds and ends from a craft/hobby store, and then I flounced up the old broken window into a nifty house number sign for my front porch!

I don't have any process pictures, but as just a general guide:

1) Scrape old paint and window glaze away.  To make life easier, you want to get all the old window glaze off so that the panes of glass are just loose in the wooden frame with only the glazing points holding them in.

2) Gently bend back the glazing points from the glass and remove the panes.

3) Scrape and lightly sand the frame, making repairs with glue or wood putty where needed.

4) Paint your frame the desired color.

5) Clean the panes and reposition them in the frame.

6) Reglaze or just use silicone caulk to seal the panes back to the frame.

7) Stencil desired words, numbers, or sayings on the glass

8) Add any embellishments, and hang it up!

9) Admire your handiwork in creating a literal 'Trash to Treasure' item, preferably while sipping a well-deserved glass of wine!

Starting in the Middle

The middle is the now, and no matter how much I like to reminisce or dream, I do admit I am a here-and-now kind of girl.  Between I and J?  Well, it could be a rebellion against the ABC and XYZ of list-making, scorekeeping, and tally-marking.  It could be me trying to maintain the balance between insanity and joy that most women have when kids, spouses, jobs, and life in general are thrown into the mix.  Or it could be that I live between I and J streets.  Sometimes I'm obvious like that.

Picture of my house when we bought it, about 18 months ago.

To pick it right up and carry on, I'll tell you I have a lot of hobbies.  I am absolutely ADD when it comes to projects and hobbies.  Crafts, costumes, art, cooking, construction, writing, gaming....and so it goes.  This space is an attempt at organizing my mind, if not my project list.

Notice that word: attempt. 

I do try to be honest with myself.

:-)
-E