oh weekend
Sep. 5th, 2010 08:55 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
dragonlady7How I needed a long weekend. I spent all day yesterday doing nearly nothing. I tried, repeatedly, to get up and do things. But eventually I capitulated: I was getting nothing done. Whereupon I hit upon a sort of consolation prize of a project, something I could do with basically no brain cells.
Linen handkerchiefs.
Several members of my family use handkerchiefs. Dad's old-fashioned; Ann's crunchy-granoly. I saw a link from some website about embroidery I was reading, and thought, oh. I just bought, more or less on speculation, more hanky-weight linen than I needed for a project. (I've found linen has a way of getting used, here, and anyway fabrics-store offers quantity discounts. So I stock up.)
So I cut out a 14-inch width of it, selvedge to selvedge, and cut that into four squares to be hemmed into hankies I can then embroider. I did a proper job of it, and have been feeling very soothed as I work on them. (I pulled threads to make sure they were very square when I trimmed the edges, so they're perfectly on-grain, and then I used the pulled threads to sew them with, so it's nearly invisible.)
I've been taking pictures as I work and will probably post a tutorial somewhere. THere's really no reason to do so, as anyone in the world could figure out how to make them, but it soothed me a lot to do, and sometimes seeing tutes for things you already know how to do gives you ideas. I finished the first hankie, blew my nose in it as a test (not much there, but I thought I'd see if I just got a wet hand-- I didn't, so thank you, inherent wicking properties of linen), then machine-washed it and line-dried it to see how the hems held up. They seemed to do just fine. Huzzah.
So I've started on a second. I sort of liked the look that a drawn thread made in the relatively open weave of this linen, so I drew another thread an inch and a half or so in from where the hem will end of this second one, for a decorative effect. I'm about halfway done sewing the hems on that one. I may start embroidering the first. I am still deciding what sort of embroidery to do, but I think white linen on white linen would look quite neat. Not that my dad would care, or my sister, but it would be fun to do.
Today I also got a lot done in the realm of shopping. Z and I went out together. It was fun, and productive.
First we went to the hardware store. Fine steel wool, fine sandpaper, and kerosene. Not all for the same thing: I'm trying to make signs for my Pennsic household. (Like, "No smoking under the roof", for example; without a sign, I couldn't ask people to stop without being a total asshole. If there's a sign at least I can point to it. People are less pissy when they were warned.) Dad's advice was to use plain wood and boiled linseed oil and then, I dunno, maybe carve it or something. Linseed oil will keep it at least short-term weatherproof. I realized yesterday that I could just write in Sharpie on the signs, then oil over the top (no blurring or smearing, and bonus it's waterproof). But I also realized that I could use the oil to refinish some wooden folding chairs I have that I sort of like. (Bonus: linseed oil is period.) So I got the steel wool for that.
The kerosene is for Z's incipient experiments with colored agents in flames. He wants to make the tikis at Pennsic burn in funny colors. Common household chemicals will fluoresce when burned, so if he treats the wicks of oil lamps, the theory goes, he can make the flames be long-term colorful. (As we speak I am smelling random things burning and hearing the lighter click a lot. Borax and Epsom Salts are his two experimental media. It's like a God-damn chemistry set in here.)
Then we went to TJ Maxx, which is where I got a kerosene lamp for cheap before Pennsic. That was a strikeout, but as we were headed for the door, I saw a bag of wooden bowls just like the ones I use for Pennsic, for $10. There were four bowls in there. SCA merchants sell those bowls for $10 each. So I snagged both bags, on pure speculation that they'd be useful. (Bonus: they're actually food-safe! Sometimes those things are "just for decoration" which means they're probably finished with boiled linseed oil which is "boiled" by adding heavy metals to it, or something else furniture-grade of similar nature. Guess how I know all that!)
Then we went to JoAnn's. I needed water-soluble markers, so I could draw embroidery patterns. I decided I should also stock up on needles, since I keep losing the good ones. Then I realized that the whole "notions wall" was 50% off. So I bought an extra dressmaker's tape, needle threaders, a loop turner (I had a drawstring puller, which works in a pinch, but not for really narrow loops!) and like eight different kinds of transfer pens. One will be just perfect, I know, whereupon I will lose it. Ah well.
I also raided the Remnants bin, scoring an assortment of random things-- including some Mylar-laced insulation, so Insulated Haversack Mark II will be totally kick-ass.
Then we went to Wal-Mart. I know, I know. But we had a goal. Kerosene lamp wicks, and to see if they sold EZ-Ups. They don't. BJ's does. But anyway. (Z and I are totally getting an EZ-Up for next Pennsic. No floor, no, but our spot is on top of a hill. Provided we're there for setup and can stake our claim, that is. And we have tentative plans to improvise a tub bottom from a tarp, should we discover that we need to. But the primary plan is to show up with some tube sand and terraform instead. Which is the luxury of camping in the exact same place every single year.)
We also found those kerosene lamps there. $10-15 online, $4.88 at Wal-Mart. Well then! We also found Borax there.
This all took hours, you understand. But the important thing to note is that we were having fun the whole time. My hips weren't bothering me, which they haven't been these last two weeks since I've been sitting at my job-- but were mercilessly all summer before that. And we were just hanging out, which we never get to do.
So on the way home we stopped at Anderson's Frozen Custard. Their flavor of the day was Pumpkin, which I'd never had before. I debated getting it in a hot fudge sundae, which is my default action with the Flavor of the Day, and then realized that they had hot caramel too. So I got that. Z was impressed.
Then I came home and did dishes, and then I made dinner. Yesterday we grilled a beer-can chicken. Last night I pulled off most of the meat, put it into the fridge, and boiled the rack with some herbs in water, along with the rest of the beer from the can it was grilled on. (Hot greasy beer equals great chicken stock foundation.) So this afternoon I pulled the rack out of the cooled stock, strained the stock, put carrots, celery, and onion into it, and pulled the rest of the meat off the rack and put it into the fridge with the other meat.
Then I decided there was enough meat for two meals. So I pulled a cup or so of the stock out of the soup, made a roux with bacon grease and flour and added the stock to it to make gravy, and then shredded the meat about 50 50 into the soup and the gravy. I baked cornbread, corn muffins, and biscuits, and made Z make us some huge salads to make up for the bacon fat. (I used bacon fat instead of butter in the baked goods too.) So tonight's dinner was chicken and gravy over biscuits, and there's a big pot of chicken soup that just needs noodles added to it to make another big dinner.
I was pretty pleased. There are a couple of biscuits left: dessert tonight will be jam on biscuits, and probably spiced cider or mulled wine if it gets cold in the house.
I'm getting totally fat. But this weekend has been all about the home cooking. (This morning Z made his usual-- pseudo-eggs-benedict, consisting of toast with eggs over-easy and bacon on top, and the whole shebang topped with cheese sauce.) It's been a long time since we had time to shop and cook normally, so we've been celebrating that along with the sudden drop into fall weather. You gotta stock up on calories for hibernation. My jeans are too tight. It's all good.
Linen handkerchiefs.
Several members of my family use handkerchiefs. Dad's old-fashioned; Ann's crunchy-granoly. I saw a link from some website about embroidery I was reading, and thought, oh. I just bought, more or less on speculation, more hanky-weight linen than I needed for a project. (I've found linen has a way of getting used, here, and anyway fabrics-store offers quantity discounts. So I stock up.)
So I cut out a 14-inch width of it, selvedge to selvedge, and cut that into four squares to be hemmed into hankies I can then embroider. I did a proper job of it, and have been feeling very soothed as I work on them. (I pulled threads to make sure they were very square when I trimmed the edges, so they're perfectly on-grain, and then I used the pulled threads to sew them with, so it's nearly invisible.)
I've been taking pictures as I work and will probably post a tutorial somewhere. THere's really no reason to do so, as anyone in the world could figure out how to make them, but it soothed me a lot to do, and sometimes seeing tutes for things you already know how to do gives you ideas. I finished the first hankie, blew my nose in it as a test (not much there, but I thought I'd see if I just got a wet hand-- I didn't, so thank you, inherent wicking properties of linen), then machine-washed it and line-dried it to see how the hems held up. They seemed to do just fine. Huzzah.
So I've started on a second. I sort of liked the look that a drawn thread made in the relatively open weave of this linen, so I drew another thread an inch and a half or so in from where the hem will end of this second one, for a decorative effect. I'm about halfway done sewing the hems on that one. I may start embroidering the first. I am still deciding what sort of embroidery to do, but I think white linen on white linen would look quite neat. Not that my dad would care, or my sister, but it would be fun to do.
Today I also got a lot done in the realm of shopping. Z and I went out together. It was fun, and productive.
First we went to the hardware store. Fine steel wool, fine sandpaper, and kerosene. Not all for the same thing: I'm trying to make signs for my Pennsic household. (Like, "No smoking under the roof", for example; without a sign, I couldn't ask people to stop without being a total asshole. If there's a sign at least I can point to it. People are less pissy when they were warned.) Dad's advice was to use plain wood and boiled linseed oil and then, I dunno, maybe carve it or something. Linseed oil will keep it at least short-term weatherproof. I realized yesterday that I could just write in Sharpie on the signs, then oil over the top (no blurring or smearing, and bonus it's waterproof). But I also realized that I could use the oil to refinish some wooden folding chairs I have that I sort of like. (Bonus: linseed oil is period.) So I got the steel wool for that.
The kerosene is for Z's incipient experiments with colored agents in flames. He wants to make the tikis at Pennsic burn in funny colors. Common household chemicals will fluoresce when burned, so if he treats the wicks of oil lamps, the theory goes, he can make the flames be long-term colorful. (As we speak I am smelling random things burning and hearing the lighter click a lot. Borax and Epsom Salts are his two experimental media. It's like a God-damn chemistry set in here.)
Then we went to TJ Maxx, which is where I got a kerosene lamp for cheap before Pennsic. That was a strikeout, but as we were headed for the door, I saw a bag of wooden bowls just like the ones I use for Pennsic, for $10. There were four bowls in there. SCA merchants sell those bowls for $10 each. So I snagged both bags, on pure speculation that they'd be useful. (Bonus: they're actually food-safe! Sometimes those things are "just for decoration" which means they're probably finished with boiled linseed oil which is "boiled" by adding heavy metals to it, or something else furniture-grade of similar nature. Guess how I know all that!)
Then we went to JoAnn's. I needed water-soluble markers, so I could draw embroidery patterns. I decided I should also stock up on needles, since I keep losing the good ones. Then I realized that the whole "notions wall" was 50% off. So I bought an extra dressmaker's tape, needle threaders, a loop turner (I had a drawstring puller, which works in a pinch, but not for really narrow loops!) and like eight different kinds of transfer pens. One will be just perfect, I know, whereupon I will lose it. Ah well.
I also raided the Remnants bin, scoring an assortment of random things-- including some Mylar-laced insulation, so Insulated Haversack Mark II will be totally kick-ass.
Then we went to Wal-Mart. I know, I know. But we had a goal. Kerosene lamp wicks, and to see if they sold EZ-Ups. They don't. BJ's does. But anyway. (Z and I are totally getting an EZ-Up for next Pennsic. No floor, no, but our spot is on top of a hill. Provided we're there for setup and can stake our claim, that is. And we have tentative plans to improvise a tub bottom from a tarp, should we discover that we need to. But the primary plan is to show up with some tube sand and terraform instead. Which is the luxury of camping in the exact same place every single year.)
We also found those kerosene lamps there. $10-15 online, $4.88 at Wal-Mart. Well then! We also found Borax there.
This all took hours, you understand. But the important thing to note is that we were having fun the whole time. My hips weren't bothering me, which they haven't been these last two weeks since I've been sitting at my job-- but were mercilessly all summer before that. And we were just hanging out, which we never get to do.
So on the way home we stopped at Anderson's Frozen Custard. Their flavor of the day was Pumpkin, which I'd never had before. I debated getting it in a hot fudge sundae, which is my default action with the Flavor of the Day, and then realized that they had hot caramel too. So I got that. Z was impressed.
Then I came home and did dishes, and then I made dinner. Yesterday we grilled a beer-can chicken. Last night I pulled off most of the meat, put it into the fridge, and boiled the rack with some herbs in water, along with the rest of the beer from the can it was grilled on. (Hot greasy beer equals great chicken stock foundation.) So this afternoon I pulled the rack out of the cooled stock, strained the stock, put carrots, celery, and onion into it, and pulled the rest of the meat off the rack and put it into the fridge with the other meat.
Then I decided there was enough meat for two meals. So I pulled a cup or so of the stock out of the soup, made a roux with bacon grease and flour and added the stock to it to make gravy, and then shredded the meat about 50 50 into the soup and the gravy. I baked cornbread, corn muffins, and biscuits, and made Z make us some huge salads to make up for the bacon fat. (I used bacon fat instead of butter in the baked goods too.) So tonight's dinner was chicken and gravy over biscuits, and there's a big pot of chicken soup that just needs noodles added to it to make another big dinner.
I was pretty pleased. There are a couple of biscuits left: dessert tonight will be jam on biscuits, and probably spiced cider or mulled wine if it gets cold in the house.
I'm getting totally fat. But this weekend has been all about the home cooking. (This morning Z made his usual-- pseudo-eggs-benedict, consisting of toast with eggs over-easy and bacon on top, and the whole shebang topped with cheese sauce.) It's been a long time since we had time to shop and cook normally, so we've been celebrating that along with the sudden drop into fall weather. You gotta stock up on calories for hibernation. My jeans are too tight. It's all good.
