Valentines Update (or I love Valentines day and had to post over a week late))

This is a card I made with a big red love balloon!

A Pizza that we made, sadly this one didn't come out heart shaped like they normally do.

A beautiful pair of warm pink mitts made out of Manos lovingly made by my mom.

This photo of the red printed helmet I traced from a book I was given a while ago called "Faeries" it has beautiful images of faeries and elves, dwarves and every kind of magical creature you could imagine. This is a screen print that I did for Truckman for Valentines day of the helmet of the Irish king of faeries

These chocolates that I devoured with no shame.

Head of Lettuce

So Valentines weekend was enjoyable. It began with our local Food co-ops 29th Birthday Party Bash, complete with live music performances, 29 Birthday cakes lovingly made and donated for and by the patrons of the co op. Every single cake I'm assuming was fast eaten, digested, and finished off by hungry Birthday lovers. The peice I got was from an awesome (awesome with a big fat A in the front) chocolate cake with real peanut butter frosting. I wish I knew who made it.
Truckman and I took a trip to the Brewpub afterward where we sampled some delicious creations, a vanilla stout made especially for valentines day and branded "The S.W.A.K Stout" short for "sealed with a kiss" and an M.M Blonde Ale whose ingredients I don't remember off the top of my head but it was tasty. We then made pizza later on in the evening.
On Sunday my father, and friend of ours, Truckman and myself went up to see Lettuce at The Snowbarn at Mt Snow in VT. Every single one of these guys in this band are top notch, all play in several proffesional touring bands and are at the top of their game. The keys player (Neil Evans) and guitar player (Eric Krasno) from Soulive, Adam Deitch drummer for John Scofield, Break Science and a whole bunch of other projects, make up just part of the lineup for Lettuce. Check em out. I even got to meet Mr. Deitch himself on the way, I don't have anything to prove it by I swear to got I did...

Home Brewing

This past week two new batches of beer have been started. Truckman recently took a special Thursday at a local brewery to learn the ropes and get an idea of what large scale (by no means large considering there are such large corporations like Budweiser that basically own all companies that make the majority of commercial beer these days) really means. He got some supplies from the friendly folk, an awesome yeast culture,(which is simply taken from the bottom of their fermenting tank after it settles, it's eaten through a lot of sugar and multiplied itself, they just open up the spigot and out comes beautiful usable yeast, the circle goes round) and 5 gallons of mash liquid the liquid that holds the most sugars that are taken after sparging the grains to attain maximum sugar extraction.

With this he started basically a clone recipe of the pubs IPA (India Pale Ale) a traditionally English style beer with a higher alcohol content, and our favorite bittering agent hops!)

A couple of days later we decided to make a mild brown ale, we're not sure what will come of it. We were originally going to follow a recipe from an old Fermenters Digest, but after Truckman did some math the alcohol content was going to something close to a non-alcoholic beverage, so we decided to modify it. There is a mix of chocolate malt, and crystal malt, the chocolate being used quite often in stouts The old Fermenters Digest was gifted by the loving brew mama at Christmastime last year, and contain all kinds of interesting articles, hand typed, with hand done drawings and very homegrown feel.

The IPA is on its way into the secondary fermenter tomorrow, and we're going to do some dry hopping, the process of adding hops after brewing and fermenting for a short while. This helps to add more aroma and adds an extra bittering agent.

We've been looking into doing some hand silkscreening labels onto beer bottles, modifying equipment, and improving our setup. The book above by Charlie Papazian, a big homebrewing guru may be providing us with our next recipe, a stout. So far IPA's and regular Pale Ales have been our specialty but I think we're ready to take on the task.

I apologize if all of the explanations aren't clear, I'm doing a lot of learning myself on the whole art of brewing in general, types of beer, and the special skills involved in homebrewing. Most of which seem to involve fast problem solving, and the gathering of odd kitchen implements to help with the process! It's also a requirement to dump water all over yourself at some point, and also lifting large containers of water onto uncomfortably high surfaces.

Hernani

"Youth is the time to go flashing from one end of the world to the other… to try the manners of different nations; to hear the chimes at midnight; to see the sunrise in town and country; to be at a REVIVAL;circumnavigate the metaphysics, write halting verses, run a mile to see a fire, and wait all day long in the theatre to applaud Hernani."~Robert Louis Stevenson

This is a quote that I came across in my internet wanderings this morning. It reminded me of what life is supposed to feel like. Like lots of people the winter doldrums have taken a slight grip on my cold feet, and keeps tugging more incessantly downward on my mood. I may need to read this a few times today.

Hernani is the mysterious bandit in a play by Victor Hugo apparently. An interesting tale so it seems.

Pink Slips and Lady lips

Though the voting is now over, and I realized much too late that I could partcipate, Etsy hosted a vote on "The Loviliest Ladies Item" This beautiful sunset colored slipdress by Muir Hughs would have been my pick.  Though the winners ring is beautiful, I am not one for the shiny jewelry. 

   Whenever gift giving holidays roll around I am always thinking of the next craft project. I've got a few up my sleeve for this coming Saturday's Valentines day.

    Read a Brief history of Valentines day, a few different perspectives on this ancient practice of exchanging gifts of love. Maybe I am a bit premature in my valentines post, but I can't help thinking about it. Being someone interested in agriculture I like this take on the day...

While some believe that Valentine's Day is celebrated in the middle of February to commemorate the anniversary of Valentine's death or burial — which probably occurred around 270 A.D — others claim that the Christian church may have decided to celebrate Valentine's feast day in the middle of February in an effort to 'christianize' celebrations of the pagan Lupercalia festival. In ancient Rome, February was the official beginning of spring and was considered a time for purification. Houses were ritually cleansed by sweeping them out and then sprinkling salt and a type of wheat called spelt throughout their interiors. Lupercalia, which began at the ides of February, February 15, was a fertility festival dedicated to Faunus, the Roman god of agriculture, as well as to the Roman founders Romulus and Remus.

Pinks, Permanence, and the Thunderbolt Kid

The photo to the left is of a scarf that I knit with some hand spun that I recently finished. I love the irregular texture of the way it knit up. I have a couple of batts leftover from a longtime ago that I was going to save for some needle felting, but will maybe try to spin. Usually by the time I have the tension set right on my wheel I've used up all my supplies to spin with!

   I've been reading the newest issue of The Permaculture Activist, a great publication that comes out 4 times a year each with a general topic, but comprised of articles written by permaculture practitioners, farmers, activists, and all the titles that you could come up with to call people! Past topics have included permaculture at home, Kids and Permaculture, preparing for peak energy descent etc.

   I'm also reading M.F.K Fisher who I recently read about in Ready Made Magazine, a mag that I mentioned earlier on a couple of posts ago. I'm reading As They Were, a sort of childhood memoir, poignant memories intermingle with prose about cooking, food, family life, and one persons experience that make up the history of our country and it's evolution over the last century, from what it once was.

   

To add one more to the list, I'm listening to a book on tape by Bill Bryson called The Life and Times of the Thunderbolt Kid. I've been told to read Bill Bryson for some time now, and I'm glad I'm actually listening to this book, as he is the reader. That is unusual in the book on tape realm. It's his memoir of growing up as a baby boomer in the 1950's and all the humor and real life obeservation that comes with having grown up during that time period. It is fun remembering a lot of common kid memories that lots of people share no matter what time you grew up in, and also learning through his eyes about the culture of mid century America. 

     I can envision being his childhood cohort in his adventures on the ice rink, the bicycle, and the icecream truck, even though the latter never came through my neighborhood as a child...I didn't grow up in the suburbs so I got the whistling wind in the pine trees instead. And of this I am very very glad.

Projects Smobjects

This is a bottle of Australian wine, part of which was consumed while I was making brownies and garlic pesto grilled cheese (mmm) and while other people were fixing bass guitars and broken Volkswagen Rabbits.

This is lovely pink frosting waiting to go on a batch of brownies in honor of a lovely dog that I know that has now passed on to that big field in the sky. Though I'm afraid she might not have been able to eat them herself, I'm sure she's snacking on all kinds of delicious doggie treats in dog heaven. Miss you Miss April.

In craftland, I've learned how to crochet a circle, I'm learning to knit a cable scarf in two colors, improvise my own patterns for 2 simple scarfs (check out my ravelry page for the Little Wing scarflette) and I've learned that yarn addiction is a fast and loose pursuit. No messing around with people that engage in this activity!

I've been reading Ready Made magazine lately. I got a couple of cool craft magazine that were sitting out for free on the stoop of a local smalltime general store, and that was how I got turned on to reading Ready Made. There is an upcycled scarf that they sew together using cut up sweaters and then dye them to your desired color. And also lamps, patchwork pillows, tables, clothing....