(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. Continue Reading…
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! Continue Reading…
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
It seems like everybody is getting sick lately. Despite my efforts to avoid it, Mr. Boy managed to give me his head cold, icky crud. It’s that lame kind of in-between sick where you feel like crap, but not bad enough to stop you from feeling guilty about taking a day off. I feel like I should be working, but my brain feels all blurry and my face is full of mucus. I finally decided I probably shouldn’t work, because I don’t really want to make germ filled plushies. I just imagined my innocent little creatures going out into the world like so many tiny small pox blankets.
My guilt being assuaged, I decided to fill the gaps between napping sessions by continuing to fill my moleskine sketchbook. Since my attention span is a bit short right now, I’m filling a page with tiny little 2.25″ square drawings. I don’t know if I’ve mentioned it yet, but I am still quite in love with my new markers. It doesn’t take much encouragement for me to break them out and doodle. Even if I don’t feel like doing anything else.
Anyways, Mr. Boy said something about a “chibi Hellboy” and somehow I ended up with Hellboy chumming it up with an octopus. I’ll pretend it’s because I’m sick. Then I tried a self-portrait. I didn’t mean for it to look like I was disgusted at the mushy cephalopod friendship above. It turns out it’s somewhat difficult to draw yourself disapproving of your own hair cut. (I got pissed off at my bangs the other day and because I’m a cheapskate, I trimmed them myself. I have sort of “seventies, Farrah Fawcett” bangs as my friends kindly informed me. I suppose it could have turned out worse. I could have ended up with a Flock of Seagulls do.)
Now I have four more little squares to fill up. Instead of coming up with the rest of them on my own, I’m offering up some little mini commissions. Judging by the duration of Mr. Boy’s illness, I’m going to be at this for a couple of more days at least. So for the low, low price of only $5 you can tell me what to draw in my little book for the rest of the week. If you are interested you know where to find me.
I think it’s about time I go back to sleep on the cat. And I swear the next post won’t have anything to do with markers. For reals.
Farmer Green had enough of Bert’s attitude. There was something unsettling about that chicken. It was always strutting around like it owned the place, putting on airs and looking down on everyone. It never associated with any of the other chickens. It turned it’s beak up at worms and never once had he seen it fly. It just wasn’t right a chicken acting that superior. He was in charge of his farm and no chicken of his was going to get away with that sort of nonsense. Bert was going to learn to fly or die trying.
Bert (who was actually Betty–Farmer Green wasn’t really a very smart farmer) actually did think she owned the place. From the moment she hatched, she had been secretly coddled by the farmer’s daughter. She was hand fed, petted and groomed daily, and carried around like a princess in a basket. It was perfectly obvious to Betty that she was a superior creature. All that scratching around in the dirt was beneath her. That flying business was just undignified. As if she should propel herself somewhere! So it happened that Betty was most unpleasantly surprised the day she found herself tossed out of the hayloft into the empty air. With sudden clarity, and much flapping about, she realized she was in fact, just a chicken.
I am still quite in love with my new markers. So in love with them that I’ve actually been drawing on a regular basis. I even attempted to participate in Illustration Friday, which I’ve been following for years, hence the chicken themed picture. Of course to actually participate I should have submitted it yesterday, but I was terribly busy drinking beer and meeting lots of cool new people. Continue Reading…
Courageous Tillie and his faithful steed George set off to seek adventure. Who knew what exciting foreign lands and heroic deeds lay before them? They would cross the treacherous River of Eels, slay the terrible monster of Gila, and they would rescue fair Hilda. Songs would be written about them, they would be showered with untold riches, and they would get to have tea with the Queen. All the neighbors would be envious. And as long as they were back by dinner, Tillie’s mom promised they could both have cupcakes with rainbow sprinkles for dessert.
Do you remember being a kid and you just got a brand new set of markers (or colored pencils, or crayons) and you were consumed by a need to use all of them, at once, on one glorious picture? Continue Reading…
At last! The exciting conclusion to my heartwarming tale of road-trippery and family. I totally lied about how long it would take to post this, but by now you should know better than to trust my time estimates anyways. To be fair, I didn’t expect it to take quite this long. I had this idea that I could somehow finish and post it over the holidays as some sort of holiday gift to the masses…while also road-tripping across the country, battling the elements, visiting family, and boogeying down with my friends New Year’s Eve.
So picking up where I left off:
Haha! You thought you were going to get the next installment of my enthralling road trip, but instead I pull the old switcheroo. Man I love that trick. Instead, I’m going to write about something very important to me: the creation and consumption of tasty things to eat.
I really enjoy cooking and I really enjoy eating. Every now and then I have these yearnings to pretend I am some sort of cultured, sophisticated adult. The kind of adult who throws lavish dinner parties, and wears swanky dresses. So I clean up my cramped, awkward little apartment, buy a bunch of nice booze, and make a lot of fancy food. Then I tell my friends they better come over and pretend we are classy people. The illusion doesn’t work unless you have more than two people. Continue Reading…
It’s December now, it’s freezing literally freezing outside, and the Powers That Be decided this was a good time to turn off the heat and let the repairmen have a party in the basement. Have I told you about how much I hate the cold? It’s kind of hard to work a needle and thread when your fingertips feel like ice cubes. The only time it is acceptable to be cold outside is when it’s snowing. Very grumpily I retreated to the warmth of the local bookstore and made myself ill on sugary overpriced coffee drinks. I also decided to take this opportunity to try and get my next post done. I guess it’s not all bad.
I was originally going to write something about the stuff I’m making my friends for Christmas, but then I realized those are really the only people who read my blog and that would ruin all the fun. Besides, I haven’t actually had time to make them yet. Instead I shall regale you with one of my recent adventures.
This one is a heartwarming holiday story. Okay, I promise it’s not really. I took a road trip with my husband to visit his grandmother before Thanksgiving and it was a lot of fun. My last little journey book went over pretty well so I made another for this trip. I don’t care if this isn’t supposed to be a travel blog. You can’t confine a Jefita with your preconceived notions of bloggery. This is actually only part one because I want to draw out the suspense, not because I haven’t finished it yet…
Back in the saddle again! Thanks to all of you who made me feel guilty about not posting. Guilt is sometimes a pretty good motivator. I didn’t realize that I was letting peoples down. So why did the Jefita disappear you say? I was doing so well, what with the semi-regular updates and the like. Did I have grand adventures or was I just slacking off? Well, I did have a few adventures, and maybe I did slack off some, but I was also in an epic struggle with one of my ancient foes, The Beast of Time Ill Spent. I have many foes, but The Beast is probably foremost among them.
