As some may have noticed, I’ve pretty much been out of action the last few months. I have to apologize. My hermit/antisocial tendencies got out of hand. I let myself get burned out. My sewing table has laid dormant for months. My beautiful markers were neglected. I dropped off the face of the internet. This happens to me periodically, but I have to admit I’ve never had it last this long.

Anyways, it’s already a month and a half into the new year and it’s about time to crawl out of my hole. I’m slowly getting back into sewing and drawing. I recently made several (possibly ill-advised) fabric and art supply purchases so I have to start making something damnit!

And I’m updating my poor dusty blog. I  felt a bit guilty about attending a “blog party” when I haven’t updated my own blog in months. I think my blog functions almost entirely on a sense of guilt. (This is not to say I don’t enjoy my blog, just that guilt is a wonderful motivator.)

So look forward to real updates as soon as I figure out why my photos won’t upload. In the meantime if you’re local you can see me be a real person tonight at the Hocoblogs Party!

To be the owner of a handsome mustache is quite a thing and seems rather popular these days.  However, life is very unfair leaving some of us genetically powerless to grow our own or forbidden to do so by the edicts of fashion or significant others. Long troubled by this problem, last year I finally created my own solution to this age old inequity without the need for razors, wax, or hormone treatment. It turns out it is quite simple (and inexpensive) to create your own facsimile of awe worthy facial hair. All you need is some felt, a needle and thread, and some sort of stuffing. Although perhaps not as satisfying as the real deal, a plush-stache is still very enjoyable. In fact, if you are already a mustache bearer, you can even increase your coolness without all the maintenance.

Plushstachery

or
How to Make Yourself an Awesome Mustache

This project has a very good satisfaction to effort ratio.  It takes very little work to make one of these mustaches, but they are very fun to wear around.  Even though this project does involve hand sewing, it is super simple and doesn’t take too long.  It doesn’t matter if your stitches are perfectly neat and there is no tricky business.  In fact I would say this is a very good beginner sewing or plush making project.

Materials/Tools

• Felt (one sheet is usually enough)
• Thread (preferably matching the felt)
• Stuffing (such as polyfill or felt scraps)
• Thin elastic cord (I recommend the clear stretchy kind for jewelry/beading)
• Paper (for pattern)
• Marker (I’m rather fond of fine-tip Sharpies) or white gel pen (something that will mark felt)
• Needle (a large embroidery sized one and a regular sized one)
• Scissors

Optional

• Pipecleaner or wire
• Embroidery Floss or other decorative thread

The Making

1. Print and cut out one of my mustache patterns (Plushstache_pattern1.pdf) or design your own.  I would recommend checking out the design on your face in a mirror after cutting it out.  It’s less trouble to redo the paper than the felt. Also, remember that the easy way to make your design symmetric is to draw half the mustache then fold at the middle and cut it out.
2. Trace two copies of your ‘stache onto the felt and then cut them out.
   
3. Place the two pieces together (put the marked side in if you don’t want it to show), pinning if desired.  Start sewing at the top middle, using a whip stitch, moving towards the tips.  When you are almost back to the middle on the bottom, stop and tie off, leaving a gap so you can stuff it later.  Now do the other half the same way, but wait to tie off until you have finished the next step.
   Optional:  If you want, you can put a pipecleaner or wire inside your ‘stach to help keep it’s shape better.  I like doing this so I can shape it to my face too.  Shape your wire beforehand, and then insert when you stuff on very straight designs or just after coming around the tips on complex designs.  Hopefully the diagram makes sense of what I said.
4. Start stuffing! Starting with small pieces gently push the stuffing into the tips first with a pencil or other pokey tool.  Continue stuffing just until desired amount of “bushiness” is achieved. Don’t add too much stuffing! My villainous pattern only has a tiny amount in the middle, under the nose area.  Sew closed the opening after you are finished stuffing.
   
5. Thread the embroidery (or other large eyed needle) with a long length of elastic cord. It’s better to err on the side of excess here. This is what is going to keep the mustache on your face so it needs to be long enough to loop behind your ears after attached to the mustache. Following the diagram, thread the elastic through the back of the mustache and then knot the loose ends together.  Now check to see how your mustache fits.  You should have a large loop on either side that fits over and behind your ears. It should be just tight enough to keep the ‘stache right under your nose, but not so tight it cuts into your face (otherwise it will look like you have cat whiskers). Adjust the position of the knot until the right fit is achieved then trim ends to 1/2″ or so.
   

   This is the type of cord I used along with a large embroidery needle

   

   The back should look something like this when you finish

6. Go awe the world with your newfound mustached glory!
   

If you create your own glorious mustache, I would love to see it!

And remember, don’t let hipsters dim your enjoyment of mustachery.  Frankly, proper mustaches have always been cool.

(Look! I’m not dead and actually posting things! Amazing and astounding isn’t it? All it takes is a little faith and nagging ye non-believers.)

My “little” (almost out of high school) sister came and visited me for a couple of weeks in June so I had a brief creative spree.  My sister is a long time partner-in-crime/making-stuff-buddy, but since we don’t live close by anymore, we have to make the most of our visits.  One of our favorite activities is culinary experiments.  We save up recipes we want to try for the once or twice a year we get to hang out.  She is an avid follower of many bento blogs, so our list is heavily weighted towards Asian food these days.   One of the first things we decided to try our hand at this time was some homemade sushi.  I am a long time sushi aficionado, but my sister is still trying to decide if she likes it.

Making sushi at home really isn’t that difficult and the internet provides a wealth of information to help you figure it out.  Contrary to popular belief, sushi does not actually have to contain raw fish or even fish at all and with the rising popularity of such foods, the international section of many grocery stores have most of the ingredients.  My sister and I found everything we needed at my local chain grocery store.  There were even overpriced cute little kits.  You probably won’t find all the ingredients to do super traditional rolls, but you can find enough to try your hand at it and end up with something tasty.  All you really need is short grain or “sushi” rice, vinegar, and seaweed.  Of course if you do have a good Asian store nearby, I would recommend going there instead so you don’t have to pay the exorbitant “specialty item” prices of the grocery store.

For guidance on constructing and filling our rolls, we turned to one of our favorite food blogs Just Hungry.  This blog contains a wealth of basic and practical Japanese cooking information as well as interesting cultural tidbits.  The author has several very handy articles about sushi, these being the ones we referred to:

• How to make Japanese-style plain rice and sushi rice - proper rice preparation is critical for this adventure
• Ehoumaki (ehou maki): Lucky long sushi roll for Setsubun no hi – basic rolling filling technique for sushi rolls, plus some easy filling ideas
• A sushi roll bento, plus how to make sushi rolls without a sushi mat – in case you don’t have a sushi mat

Arming ourselves with a bowl of sushi rice, seaweed sheets, and some very sharp kitchen implements, my sister and I intrepidly set forth on the business of actually constructing the rolls.  Since we were limited to what we could find at the local grocery, we kept our fillings pretty simple.  We made four different rolls, filled as such:

• “Philly” roll – smoked salmon, cream cheese, a tiny bit of chopped onion
• “Too cheap to buy crab, but already have shrimp” California roll – cooked shrimp, avocado, cucumber
• “Whatever I feel like” roll – canned tuna (mixed with mayo), cucumber, carrot
• “Kinda like a sammich” roll – Havarti cheese, salami, carrot

Lessons Learned

All in all I felt this experiment was pretty successful.  The rolls turned out pretty cute and were reasonably tasty too.  Personally I like little bite sized rolls better, so I next time I would make them smaller.  I felt there was a bit too much rice to filling, but that’s something easy to fix with experience. I would also probably add some lettuce or other greens to add a bit of color and make them prettier.  If you decide to try your hand at making sushi too, here is my sage noob advice:

1. Buy the right rice — Being an uncultured American, I never really paid much attention to different types of rice.  It turns out it’s a big deal when you are making traditional Japanese food or sushi.  The variety used for sushi is a short grain white rice that is much stickier than long grain varieties like Jasmine or Basmati. I had never used this kind of rice before and I was amazed at the difference in texture. So remember, despite the convenience of long grain rice, don’t cheat or you will be frustrated and disappointed.
2. Don’t worry about fancy ingredients — Sushi is really only a “fancy” food in the U.S.  Elsewhere it is a cheap and convenient food that you can fill with everyday ingredients.  If you are at a loss for easy fillings, I would suggest looking up kimbap recipes.  Kimbap (or gimbap) is a Korean food that is quite similar to sushi that is often packed for lunches and picnics and has simple fillings.  Of course, if you know a good place to get sashimi grade fish and you can afford it, there’s no reason not to try that either. I’m just a cheapskate.  Maybe someday I’ll splurg and try it with some fresh and tasty tuna (*nom, nom, nom*)
3. Ugly food still tastes good — If this is your first attempt, it’s rather likely your rolls will be unsightly.  It takes a little practice to roll them up neatly.  Either way they will still be tasty (assuming you filled them with tasty things).  If you are having trouble, I would suggest checking out some of the sushi making videos on YouTube. Visual aids usually help me figure things out.

Last week I agreed to update my poor neglected blog if my little sister updated her neglected photography. Much to my dismay, she had updated within five minutes of said agreement. So here I am, completing my half of the bargain. Recently I have designated Sundays my “experiment” day of the week. A couple of weeks ago, confronted with the remnants of an ill advised lemon purchase and a bunch of leftover ginger for stir-fry, I decided to attempt making ginger beer. It combines three of my favorite things: efficient use of resources (a.k.a. getting rid of leftovers), new projects, and SCIENCE!

Ginger beer is really just ginger ale with some attitude, but it does involve one of mankind’s oldest and most cherished forms of mad science–brewing. To get the soda carbonated, you have to do some fermenting. Just a little bit.  Not enough to make it legitimately alcoholic.

By the way kids, I don’t know if you know this, but yeast is really cool. It’s a domesticated microbe. You should check it out sometime.

*Ahem* Moving on. So this project isn’t exactly “instant” gratification, but it is super easy and very gratifying…if you like cool, refreshing, zingy beverages.

Ginger Beer

Now I’m not going to give you a complete how-to.  The internet is rife with ginger beer how-tos.  I will however tell you what you need, and my notes on the process.

The Recipe

There are lots of recipes for ginger beer/ale out there and most of them are pretty similar.  I chose to use one from Alton Brown:  Ginger Ale

It is labeled “ginger ale” but I consider it ginger beer.  It has a healthy peppery bite compared to the mild mannered stuff you buy in a can.

Equipment

• A clean 2 liter soda bottle, or two 1 liter glass bail top bottles (mine came from IKEA, you can also find them at home brew supply stores)
• A fine grater (Microplane, FTW!)
• Strainer
• A pot

Ingredients

• Fresh ginger (3-4 in)
• A lemon
• Sugar (I went all fancy and used turbinado sugar)
• Yeast, bread or champagne (champagne yeast can also be found at a home brew supply store, and is pretty cheap)
• Water

Notes

I have made two rounds of this already, so I’ve had a chance to screw up and work a few things out:

• 1.5 oz = 3 Tbsp of ground ginger–I guesstimated the first time and didn’t put nearly enough in.  It was weak sauce.
• 6 oz ~ 3/4 cup sugar–This brew is not super sweet like regular soda.  In fact the yeast consumes a portion of that sugar to provide the carbonation.
• Champagne yeast provides much better carbonation and taste.  I tried bread yeast the first time and was disappointed with the results.
• Don’t add lemon zest.  I tried this out due to some comments, but it only seemed to lend a bitter “lemon cleaner” vibe.
• The gunky stuff at the bottom won’t hurt you.  That being said, I tend to avoid drinking it, but I’m too lazy to filter it out.
• And finally, let it sit in the fridge for at least a day after fermenting before consuming.  It will taste better.

So faithful readers I urge you to go forth and experiment!  If you are feeling particularly adventurous, you can try making it with wild yeast.

Or if you need something a bit more adult, might I suggest the Dark ‘n Stormy?

Now, must scurry off to make a third batch!

I’m not sure what happened to February.  I think someone stole it.  Or maybe it snuck off.  I’ve always thought of February as a sneaky month, what with the improper number of days and all.  Well I’m back on the ball now.  First on the list is a name change.  My original blog title wasn’t self-centered enough.  Actually I wanted to be able to encompass all my adventures, not just the “crafty” ones.  I kept feeling guilty that my travelogues were off topic.  So presto-name-chango, guilt away!  Now I can write about whatever trivial nonsense I want to!

Besides, I’m pretty sure I know all of my regular blog readers by name at this point, so nobody else will actually know the difference.

This isn’t a real post, but here’s what’s coming up soon:

• Another travelogue (I got to see the shuttle launch!)
• Growing things
• Adventures with a real photographer