Advertisement

jessi [entries|archive|friends|userinfo]
jessi

[ userinfo | livejournal userinfo ]
[ archive | journal archive ]

jump ship [Nov. 12th, 2009|03:16 pm]
Hey All,

I'm going ahead with the legions of others and jumping the LJ ship. I've been having a lot of issues with it lately... I can't make it look good without paying, and the whole fiasco with the ads I couldn't remove for days really ticked me off. So I'm off to a wordpress blog. It's in rough shape, but I'm going ahead with it. I'll still check in here to catch up, but won't be posting anymore. Kind of sad, really. Hope to see you at the new place:

http://jessivowels.wordpress.com/

Peace out LJ,

Jessi
Link2 comments|Leave a comment

living in yarn, update [Sep. 8th, 2009|01:07 pm]
remember back at the beginning of the year when i was like, holy crap i have a lot of yarn? i decided to have a yarn freeze and try to knit my stash down, so that i could go to the sock summit (which was last month and which i didn't get to attend do to sign up time being in the middle of the night, italy-time). well, i've been feeling pretty good about my progress. i've been knitting from the stash, so much so that i was getting a little sick of it. so i decided, hey, it's been a little over 6 months...i'll count the yarn again. and guess what?

125.

yep. three balls less. and i didn't count the three balls i bought yesterday as a reward to myself for knitting so much from the stash. or the two balls i bought on impulse to make stripey socks for fall. and neither time was counting the handcart i have full of partial skeins.

i should have never counted it, seriously. i was feeling really good about it. i know what projects i'm wanting to tackle. i feel like i have a good mix of stash and new projects going right now. a good half of those balls are set aside for sweaters, which i'm waiting to start on until i hit 180 lbs. (i've lost 10 so far and am therefore 20 lbs away from this goal... so, three months-ish). 16 of the balls are for socks -- about 9 pairs worth. as far as yarn with no destination, i've only got a few balls.

so, the number may be the same, but the situation is better.

LinkLeave a comment

is this a job? [Aug. 28th, 2009|04:43 pm]
in my last post i made mention of trying to treat being as a housewife as a sort of job. i generally try to do this, mostly just to keep myself on track; the illusion of consequence is necessary for productivity in my world. but the more i consider it a job, the more i get fed up.

being a housewife is often compared to being a nanny or a maid, but i think of it more along the lines of working at an applebee's. only, it'd be like working all the positions at applebee's simultaneously. for all of your waking hours. if you have breaks, they are to be spent on premises. when you go to sleep, it is on premises. if someone needs something in the middle of the night, guess what? you are on call. forever. you make enough to live on, but you rarely get good tips. your customers never tidy up after themselves and complain about the food. they angrily refuse to eat it, they send it back and demand something else. at best, they eat the food and leave you to clean up the mess in peace.

on the one hand, i do feel like this is a bit of an unfair characterization. i do leave the house alone to do whatever i please at least two evenings a week. my mom takes seb for several days to a week at a time every month at least once (during which time i usually just craft and do whatever, with maybe one workday's worth of housework thrown in there). but still, the parts about food and cleaning up feel pretty accurate. it's all the degrading subjugation of a food service job with the added benefit of it coming from people i love.

james frequently puts out some bullcrap about paying people to do these things for him if i weren't around, or doing such and me getting a job. here's the rub; aside from it being difficult to get a job right now, i don't really *need* to have one. and whatever job i managed to get would likely just cover the added expenses of laundry service, housekeeper, all meals eaten out, and childcare. i really don't understand why i should go and work all day so that i can pay someone to do something i previously had the time and energy to do myself, just so that someone doesn't have to man-up and act respectful toward their wife.

the thing is, i am not a waitress. i think occasionally, as no one is tipping me for dinner every night, other people should bus the table. i don't mind to do the laundry; i do mind picking up everyone's clothes from all around the house everyday. even if we hired a laundry service, the one behavior i'm asking people around here to do regularly would still need to be learned and accomplished! additionally, i am not comfortable with the class issues behind hiring service people. if i don't like to be treated this way, why would i think it's fine to do if i'm paying people? if i have enough money, i don't have to teach my kid to pick up his crap? if i can afford it, i never have to learn the simple self-discipline involved in leaving things as i have found them? and if i did get a job, i would still be expected to be the one responsible for all of these tasks -- i would just have leave to hire someone. and would i be happy with a life without homecooked food, where my house was looked after by strangers and sat empty for most of the day, where i didn't have time make the many of the objects of day to day life for myself?

this sounds like a screed against james, it's really not. i think that as far as most husbands go, james is certainly trying and at least gets somewhere close to seeing where i'm coming from. i value the work i'm doing. i understand that some aspects of it are not enjoyable and i try to suck it up and get through those. there are so many aspects of homemaking that i really do enjoy -- the cooking, the decorating, gardening, having time to craft and be creative, and generally being able to take care of my family all make me really happy. i guess it's just sometimes, more often than i'd like, i get so bogged down with the mundane aspects of it, and i often feel like no one -- here, at least -- cares or feels like what i do is good enough. it's hard to keep feeling like what you're trying to accomplish is valuable if you feel like the people around you don't value it, ya know?
LinkLeave a comment

procrastination [Aug. 25th, 2009|02:37 pm]
[Current Mood | blah]

every day i get a blissful 2-3 hours free time in the middle of the day when seb takes a nap. i know that most people's jobs' do not afford them this much time to do whatever they please, and as i try to treat my role as homemaker as a sort of job, i usually try to stay busy. it's not always in "important" ways -- making myself cook, do laundry, or attempt yard work during nap time doesn't usually happen. but i do try to avoid dicking around the interwebs or watching tv, for example.

lately i have a damn lot of knitting that needs to get done, but it's starting to be a pain in my ass. i've set myself the goal of finishing my current projects before starting my anthropologie swap project, but i'm lacking the motivation. i have a serious case of startitis as well -- but only for projects for myself. after the antro swap, i've got two pair of socks and a reconstructed sweater in the wings, at least. i'm really, really wanting to make a few pairs of earrings, as well. blarg! not enough time in the day, especially lately. nap time seems to just flit away.

and finally, a garden update. here was my harvest, at peak:



this was collected over two days in august. clockwise from top left we have jalapenos, roma, black krim, and italian heirloom tomatoes, okra, mega zucchini, and green beans. more was flowing in beforehand and more has flowed in afterward. i'm dealing with a lot of produce here, my friends!

since then i've made a few adjustments to the garden. we had a rainy summer which was good for mold, so i had to rip out a sad tomato and two effed up zucchinis. in their place i've planted two kinds of carrots. i ripped out all the basil (which was getting woody stems and, thus, a little too anise-y to  be good anymore) and turned it into pesto cubes. i planted a row of shell peas and a row of swiss chard. in the next few days i'll probably throw in some kale and mustard, as well as any fall veggies that catch my eye. i've actually never done fall veg before (save for some swiss chard that thrived well into winter without ever bolting about two years ago) so i need to look into this a little.
LinkLeave a comment

the riviera and bologna [Aug. 14th, 2009|03:45 pm]
[Tags|, , , , ]
[Current Mood | productive]

you thought i'd forgot about this, huh? nope, just lazy, as usual.

so, we left from paris on a midnight train, goin' anywhere... well, actually, it was like a 10 o'clock train and it was going to antibes, in the south of france. details, details. we got in early in the morning and wandered around, pissy, sweaty and hot, for almost an hour, stupidly lost. i am not a conservative person, but as i hate being lost and wandering around as such, i tend to be really, really, conservative about finding my way. i follow posted signs NO MATTER WHAT, for example. in this case, that was pretty stupid and got us lost. oops.

so eventually we made it to juan les pins and our hotel. i don't have a lot of pictures from juan les pin, but it was nice, small, and pretty quiet. we went straight to the beautiful beach and i swam and floated around, whilst cheryl "had a paddle," as i am fond of saying. i soon concluded that mediterranean = best. sea. ever.

the second day, we went on a day trip. bus ridiculousness ensued, but eventually -- in spite of asshole french bus drivers -- we made it to st. paul. it was scenic as fuck.



st. paul, awesome mideaval walled city. it dates to the 13th century.



display chair from some antique shop, looking all scenic. strange thing about st. paul was it had GREAT shopping. it was all art galleries and quirky boutiques, but they were really good. i got the best pair of shoes ever here.


door draped in jasmine. everything in the damn riviera was draped in jasmine and man, it smelled GOOD.


pigeons!

near the villiage was the fondation maeght, a cool modern art museum. we had to pretty much hike almost a mile to get there and it was kind of up in a forest. i think we were both thinking it was a jessi map-fail until we actually bought out entrance tickets.



this is cheryl in the miro garden. it cost extra to take pictures, so i guiltily only snapped the one. but this was a damn cool museum, people, and a pretty good end to a sweet day,

we were only in the riviera for a few days, and we mostly *actually* vacationed -- relaxed, took naps, sat at the beach, ate cherries. from here we went on to bologna, and let me tell you, that was no easy feat.

FRENCH RAIL STRIKE!

those mothereffers. basically, if we were going to get to bologna on that day, we had to get the hell out of france and catch the train in italy. after an epic local bus tour from antibes to menton, we finally got our asses into italy with only minutes to spare. awesome itialian old lady got us on the train, though, and we made it! once in bologna, there was more epic bus fail, and we ended up very specifically given directions into the middle of freaking nowhere. we solicited help from two nice looking guys, from whom we reluctantly got a ride to the hotel street. it is a testament to the bullshittitude of that effing day that we took that ride. when we got to the hotel, it looked like this:



only dark, and with no lights. but it was actually a really nice hotel, and the lady who worked there felt bad for us, and microwaved us some risotto. they had a fantastic breakfast by the by.

so, bologna. well, i have to say, i didn't care for it. there wasn't much to do, what i did find sort of interesting closed before we found out about it, it's not spectacularly beautiful or anything, and, well, i was in a shitty mood. the "day which shall not be named" had taken it's toll and bologna certainly wasn't putting forth a lot of effort to woo me, in the manner of paris, for example. (it was a little pretty, in spots, though... to be fair).



in the end, i decided to stop being a pooper and go get a coffee from the Caffe degli Orefici, as recommended by The Splendid Table's Lynne Rosetto Kaspar.

And can I just say, THANK YOU JESUS -- I mean, Lynne -- this was the best coffee I have ever tasted, oh my god, and holy jesus. Trancedentally good. Rich, chocolately, not a trace of bitterness, and taken with only the tiniest amount of sugar. SO GOOD.

So then, we just ate. We had gelato. We had rice balls. We checked out the various foodstuffs on display and the little old Italian ladies shopping for them.





We took a tiny break to go to H&M, and then we went to dinner. On the way we saw this little weirdness:



Apparently Bologna used to have lots of canals, in the manner of Venice. Now they run underground, except in this little spot. And in the wall in an alley is a tiny window which looks out over the canal. So, dinner was both amazing, and terrible. The food was possibly the best I'd ever had, but my enjoyment was dampened by Cheryl starting to barf, and then by some bitchface stealing her 20€ and causing a big ridiculous scene by her continual lying about it. I prefer to block those bits from my memory, because when all was said and done there was no way the situation was going to end well for everyone. But as I said, the dinner was amazing and the restaraunt looked like an Anthropologie set.



up next, florence!

i'll probably do an actual "my life" post here soon, too.


LinkLeave a comment

paris part 2 [Jul. 21st, 2009|02:53 pm]
[Tags|, ]
[Current Mood | cheerful]

now for some more photos. paris is very atmospheric, especially in the center. i was vaguely obsessed with this metro entrance. i didn't take this picture the first time we went through it, but instead mentioned wanting to go back several times and eventually doing so, just to get this pic. many, many times i was heard to say, "man, i wish i had my real camera!"



on one of our long walks through the city to see the things that needed to be seen, we stumbled across this statue to joan of arc. having read mark twain's brilliant account of her life (and been very affected by it) not long before this trip, i was really excited to find this unexpectedly. and i totally cried.



the best thing about france was probably the food. paris was a pretty expensive place, so we ate at convenience stores a lot.



i can't say it was much of a sacrifice. also, it made us feel all crunchy and parisian. cheryl got a pretty funny photo of me with a baguette poking out of my bag... whenever she and i manage to swap photos 'll have to a special post of photos of me in europe making silly faces.

and now for my favorite portion, the sweets. portrait of a young pastry about to be eaten:



i can't resist anything with rose petals. they taste delicious and make you feel absurdly decadant.

the above pastry was from laduree. here is just one of the many trays that lined the counters in this awesome, old fashioned bakery.



and finally, macarones! my saving grace in france. feet hurting? macaron. can't figure out where the hell we're going? macaron. too many assholes in a row? macaron!



the first day we were in paris we had a hell of a time buying metro tickets. like, it got ridiculous and took more than half an hour. everytime we thought we could finally buy metro tickets another challenge presented itself... card machine does not work, okay, find atm... or, find map, then find atm, get money, oh crap, bill acceptor broken.... finally i was like, screw this and i bought a ginormous macaron, as i'd heard they were good. so i got the small change and delicious mouth-bliss stress releif all in one.

next, the riviera, a place which, over-hyped though it may be, is not actully over*rated* at all.
Link4 comments|Leave a comment

trip part one: paris. [Jul. 15th, 2009|02:57 pm]
[Current Mood | creative]

as you know, a little over a month or so ago i got back from a vacation to france and italy. i have been very remiss on posting any details (mainly because i am such a picture slacker). so, i will remedy this now. i guess i'll try to do four parts: paris, the riviera, bologna and florence, and rome. so, first things first.

the first day we arrived was a truly ridiculous day. we hardly slept on the plane; in particular, i didn't sleep pretty much at all. we got into town at 10 and, of course, couldn't check in until 2. i was unfit for human contact but we trudged on anyways. we saw many scenic things, most of which are foggy to me now... but i do remember thiking they were nice, and generally what they looked like. we saw nortre dame:



my favorite part was the benches you see under the trees in the background here:



where i napped for an hour or two. then we got too cold . eventually we returned to the hostel, were able to go to our room, and promptly slept forever.

the next thing i remember doing was going to versailles, which i embarrassingly cannot stop pronouncing ver-sayle-z (thanks lexington!). i frequently would wander over to the open windows and gaze out at my estate and think,



gah! people, get off my lawn.

we wandered around here for a long time. we took a bazillion pictures:



here we are in the hall of mirrors. above our heads are about 500 chandeliers that i could not be sussed to upload the picture of... sorry. but, it was impressive.



and some square trees. aside from really liking this picture visually, i think a half mile of meticulously pruned tree hedges sums up france quite nicely.

and then there was country cottage disneyland,



you know how sometimes, when a very spoiled little girl likes to play dress up or house, their parents will buy them, like, some uber-twee cosy cottage that costs a bazillion dollars, because nothing is too good for their little princess? well, this is how a *real* princess throws down.



she builds a whole damn country village (the houses in which have calla lillies and tulips growing on the thatched roofs), complete with mill, several gardens, working dairy and creamery, and a few acres of ridiculously beautiful wildflowers. oh, and a pond with swans and royal ducks. redonkulous.

and... okay, i lied about the four parts. i've been at this entirely too long so far, so i'll finish up the paris portion tomorrow. maybe it will be four sections, two parts each? we'll see.


LinkLeave a comment

links [Jul. 15th, 2009|01:20 pm]
[Current Mood | groggy]

today i stumbled across two really awesome websites. the first is g-maps pedometer , which i was able to use to figure out the mileage, elevations, and supposed calories burned for a few of my most common bike routes. i'm not sure how useful this really is, but as a motivational tool, at least, it's very handy.

the other site i found was bake it pretty , a baking supply shop for your domestic hipster. they have a lot of things i had been looking for (like jumbo icing tips and a killer selection of packaging for sweets) and a few things i didn't know i was looking for but completely needed (magical forest cookie cutters anyone?).

LinkLeave a comment

re: made waffles [Jul. 12th, 2009|12:40 pm]
the brunch went well. i really didn't end up needing as much waffle batter as i made, but it was great, actually, because now i have a freezer with quite a lot of waffles in it all ready for me for the week. narm.

i felt in the end plenty of people came (sarah, erik, and mike... more than that and it might have been too many, what with seb taking up the space of three people with his typical tazmanian-devil-tornado-like pattern of movement). and i wasn't rushed on anything, which is what i was anticipating with some dread last night. next time i might make the waffles ahead of time and toast them, but for convenience and because i think they would have been better a little crispier than they turned out.

and my house is pretty freaking clean... dishes cleaned, tables wiped, floor swept only an hour or so later. i am clearly a housekeeping ninja. maybe i will start making a wee habit of vegan brunch, since i think waffles may be my new obsession, and it was nice having friends over randomly on a sunday morning.
Link1 comment|Leave a comment

made waffles [Jul. 11th, 2009|11:34 pm]
i am having brunch tomorrow at 10. you are probably invited, i you could come by. i gots a lot of waffle batter in my fridge, just in case... but i think in the end not to many peeps are going to stop in tomorrow. oh well, more waffles for me.

sometimes i think this is just not the life for me... that i'd do much better all on my own. and then other times i like my life a lot and the thought of being on my own seems horrifying. i waver pretty regularly and extremely between the two, among other opposite feelings. it's getting old. (this is brought on by complete family cooperation fail on the brunch... they really shouldn't get any food at all, i tell ya).

it's too late and i feel lonely. i should probably go to bed instead of exacerbating it with interwebs.
Link2 comments|Leave a comment

the write [Jul. 9th, 2009|02:50 pm]
i started writing again a few days ago. i've had a gnarly case of writer's block for i don't know, the last 4 years or something like that? so i guess i knit instead. got a few sweaters to show for the past few years... but no great american novel.

don't know why i started writing again all of a sudden; it came on in the middle of very banal sentence in a journal entry. and i wouldn't say it was very good... it was the flood of ideas that i needed, i suppose. finally coming up with something resembling a story; an excuse for the assemblage of moments i have in my head.

in other, but i think extremely related news, i got some new music -- 30 or 40 albums worth maybe? a combination of old music i should have already listened to and new music i should have already listened to and one or two things i feel pretty current about. the really good: ladyhawke - ladyhawke, television personalities - and the kids just love it, beiruit - gulag orkestrar, and new order - power corruntion and lies. honorable mention goes to the yeah yeah yeahs - it's blitz  and the pains of being pure at heart ( only honorable because the first and second halves of their albums, respectively, are awesome but the opposites are dragassing for me). i've got some other stuff i think is good but am waiting to weigh in on, as well (i wait to declare something brilliant until i spontaneously feel absolutely compelled to listen to it again).

anything brilliant you've heard lately?

Link5 comments|Leave a comment

mulling over [Jul. 6th, 2009|12:57 pm]
[Current Mood | contemplative]

when i travel it almost always serves as a catalyst for change in my life. the massiveness of being somewhere completely unfamiliar, operating in a different language, with strange lifestyle and customs --and then managing to adapt and deal with that enough to not only survive but mostly have a good time -- well, i always come back feeling like i could do anything i want with my life. being away from my culture, even for a little while, makes it's constraints seem much less binding upon return. i was absolutely shocked to realize the amount of things i was doing out of fear of being judged or due to just accepting others' opinions without questioning.

i am realizing i do not like the lifestyle i am living right now. i guess for a while i thought i was miserable because of the whole mom thing, but now that's lightening up and i can see i am not happy with this whole owning tons of crap and living in suburbia thing. it completely snuck up on me as well. our car broke down probably for good, just yesterday ... we still owe money on it and the loan was upside down anyway. so now we have a chunk of debt for a non-functional item that i FUCKING HATE anyways. it feels ridiculously oppressive. and our house.... at least half of the cost of our house is a fee to live near white people. honestly, since when has that ever been something i wanted to do, much less pay for? also, it's has entirely too much extra space, which i feel compelled to fill too much furniture (and also must keep clean). too much yard. too much shed. too far from everything. just not so good.

and why are we staying here? i agree it might be hard to sell our house. we might not get back what we've put in on it. we'll have to put in some work on a cheaper one downtown. but these all seem more like things to deal with rather than massive impediments to me right now. i don't want to be broke or lose tons of money, but i'm in a place right now where i can see clearly that the best part of my life -- being connected with other people and my community -- is not happening here. i've only got one life, and when i think about spending several more years of it in thise house, in this neighborhood, doing things the way i've been doing them for 3 years now, that sounds pretty bad.

(just a note i'm not feeling actively depressed or anything... kind of the opposite. i've changed a few things in my habits since i've gotten back and they're making so much of a difference in my mood and outlook on life that i just want MORE change! i was underestimating before how much i could change how i was feeling about life just by living it a little bit differently).
Link3 comments|Leave a comment

well... [Jul. 1st, 2009|11:17 pm]
was having a pretty good day, but then james came home and proceeded to have human being fail, followed closely by myriad seb fails (at one point actually climbing up the cookie case at wild oats and having to be pulled off, all the while yelling at some guy to shut up).

people in my everyday life need to put in some more effing attitude effort. for serious.
LinkLeave a comment

should update [Jun. 27th, 2009|04:32 pm]
my lack of pictures to include makes me keep putting off updating. mostly because i have pictures to post, they're just not gussied and uploaded, so i think -- well, i'll just wait another day until i go ahead and get those ready, <i>then</i> i'll post. but i don't and i don't.

anyhow, in the garden: pulled out the peas (and made really delicious risi e bisi with the last of them) and the arugula, harvested the first zuchinnis (one of which weighed in at 8 lbs and measure 16 inches long... i have a pretty hilarious picture of seb with it that i'll try to post tomorrow). got to plant a few more things (mostly herbs) and weed, weed, weed.

in knitting news, entered some things in to the fair. anyone reading this that lives around here, if you want to enter anything into the fair the deadline is July 1st, to avoid late fees. costs $8 per department entered, then you can do all the categories you want within that department. just do it! you can ride with me when i go up to drop off my stuff, iffin ya want (providing i know you, of course...).

also, just ripped out a stole-type thingy i was knitting. i lugged the damn thing all around europe, didn't knit a stitch on it. been home almost a month, pulled it back out, and immediately realized.... i hate this mothereffing yarn. beautiful in the skein, fuzzy itchy death to knit with. and it wasn't even made of wool, or any animal fiber in fact -- flax, my friends. poorly, poorly done linen.

on the cooking front, made raspberry pecan blondies (the hankering was introduced via an innocuous facebook update via johanna . you should read her blog, btw... it's very good). james pwned these, then found out they weren't vegan, was regretful for a moment, then ate more. i also made, it a fit of productiveness, babaganoush, risi e bisi, salsa, garlic scape pesto (idea via robyn ... also a good blog you could read), and FAIL blueberry jelly (now known as blueberry syrup).
Link1 comment|Leave a comment

i'm back [Jun. 11th, 2009|11:06 am]
this keyboard is busted so i'll be brief and pictureful...

i came home to peasplosion. i was afraid i'd missed them, so i was pretty releived to find they'd only just started.


i'll probably rip them out in a week or two and put in some greens. i also found the rocket saying goodbye.



and the best surprise of all...


maybe i'll actually get some tomatoes this year, off of one of my TEN freaking plants (in past years i've only managed to get some plum tomatoes). this one is a black krim and it's going absolutely insane.

LinkLeave a comment

am in italy [May. 27th, 2009|02:04 pm]
[Tags|, , ]

just so's ya know. bologna in particular, which is kind of boring but nice. next to florence and then to rome. france was suprisingly nice... i will post pictures sometime when i get back.

missed out on registering for the sock summit. really wanted to go, but also am kind of releived because i am a little tired of knitting. maybe i'll go to portland anyways and just go to the marketplace and luminary panel? i should probably decide soon. i actually think i might be disapppointed to be in portland and have to be inside all day knitting, when i could be eating free fruit and talking to weirdos.

really, i got nothing else. hope everybody is good... it's really odd not be able to read everybody's blogs and know what's going on with everybody.
Link5 comments|Leave a comment

the cooking post [May. 14th, 2009|12:00 am]
the other day i made garbage stock. i do not come from the most culinary of families, so until a few years ago i had never even heard of, much less, used, stock in general. making my own seemed ... not too difficult, exactly, but maybe too fiddly. too much effort. too much prep. but due to all this recession business, the splendid table began talk a lot about cheap, old fashioned ways to make food -- hence, my garbage stock. this is about half of the scraps i save over the course of a month and a half or so and they made 12 cups of stock. i just dumped it in, put it on for about 2 hours on low and when i came back from the garden later, it was stock!



i highly recommend this method... the flavor was good and complex, more like an herbal tea. very much better than the store bought, and free. i was probably over excited that i managed to use my food three times and leave zero waste from it -- first for a meal, second for a stock, and third in my compost, which will grow more veggies to start it again! ahh, the cycle of life. i don't know if i'm bitter for not figuring this out until 26, or strangely grateful, so that i can have childlike awe with the adult ability to appreciate it.

and second recent food triumph is more from the post punk kitchen ladies, specifically from vegan cupcakes take over the world:



tiramusu cupcakes. sorry for the crappy photo, but these have to be assembled right before eating and i only ever ate them in bad lighting! but they were too delicious not to share. vanilla cupcake filled with a coffee mixture (I mostly used the hommade liquer that[info]radiantsheep made me a few christmases ago, and it was perfect!) and cream cheese frosting, topped with a few chocolate chips and a dusting of cocoa/cinnamon powder. and, holyohmygodandjesus these were freaking good. they made me burst into song:

i could be vegan
if it weren't for cheese
i would be so vegan
you could feed me to other vegans

i dont know who wrote this song, but i am grateful. sometimes, in my half-vegan household, i need it for levity. this is probably the first time i've needed it for out-and-out praise before. so, vegan or not vegan, if you like baking --especially baking that turns out impressive and delicious, buy vegan cupcakes take over the world.
Link2 comments|Leave a comment

hello sprouts [May. 11th, 2009|02:24 pm]
[Tags|]
[Current Mood | busy]

aparecida got me saying "hello 'adjective for small' x" to all small things, as in:

                

hello little green bean. hello tiny sunflower. hello tiny okra. hello wee zucchini.



i had my first tiny harvest last week. since then i have eaten all the radishes, mostly on crusty bread with goat cheese and assorted greenery, but also sauteed with their greens, which was tasty. i think the greens are better than the radishes, actually.



and i found this bit of nasty growing in and around my garden. it's called stinkhorn, which pretty much says it all... it leaves out the stank-jelly-filled egg-like sac that's about an inch below this visible part, but perhaps merely for brevity. food post tomorrow!

Link3 comments|Leave a comment

le jaded [May. 11th, 2009|12:28 am]
i am feeling very jaded about my knitting lately. the endless stream of finished object photos on my ravelry has made start feeling sort of smug and dismissive, especially the ones where the poses are sort of studied-casual. like -- "check me out in my handspun handknit socks, just chilling in my ridiculously scenic backwilderness. i just do this every day!"

my mom has this mug that my brother got in middle school that says, "lassiter middle -- special people doing special things." whenever i see when something that is so obnoxiously just-so that mug always comes to mind. but then the next day i am over le jaded and the knit porn lures me again.

i'm not really in a bad mood or anything, i just feel strange. mother's day was a mixed bag. i'm in between creative projects. not a lot of pressing work in the garden at the moment other than weeding. i take my big european vacation in two weeks. james and i are in talks again, and they're proving fruitful, but it's sort of personally draining. mostly, i could just use some uninterrupted sleep.
Link4 comments|Leave a comment

things are growing [Apr. 27th, 2009|12:08 pm]
[Tags|]
[Current Mood | busy]

this was my garden in march:



i was quite proud of it. it looked so tidy and that soil is worked seriously deep.



here it is now. looks kind of like ass. but, it will get prettier as things grow around the unsightly (but amazing) soaker hose. from left to right there is: okra, tomatoes, snap peas, arugula (that spotty stuff in the middle, behind the pavers), beats and spinach, and green beans. one of those rows will additionally sprout some zucchini... i know that i planted it, i know that it is on one of the two side rows. this is all i know. in the back there is a row of asparagus. behind that there are sunflowers, a rosemary bush, and a lavender bush. im cutting out those annoying bushy things behind there this afternoon (but leaving the rose of sharon).

here is my raised bed:



i only have shallow rooted things planted in here, thus the weed tarp hanging out.  heres whats happening in there right now:



french breakfast radishes. almost ready for eating.



shell peas. these supposedly dont need trellising but they were viining out and trying to wrap on things so i gave them something. i have no idea if this system will work, but it's the best they're getting from me (i'm going to put more string on there as they climb). also, a nice trick... slugs started to try to eat these babies, so james made an electric fence. coppper apparently "shocks" slugs and they won't go accross it. we tried laying out a line of pennies, as james had seen suggested in make magazine, but, after 10 minutes of putting pennies end to end and little progress, james was like, "screw this, i've got copper wire." it took all of five minutes to lay out and has been incredibly effective.

all of my starts are doing very iffily. at least 5 or so of the tomatoes are in good shape and looking as i feel they should. the jalepenos, eggplants and peppers look good but seem very slow growing. then again, i've never done this before, so perhaps this is how they should look at this point. next week is when they need to be planted, so i think im going to start hardening them off. hopefully the time outside will do for them what it is doing for the garden... my snap peas and asparagus are officially going insane right now:

this week i have A LOT to do. i need to dig up a 4 by 8 foot rectangle of sod, cultivate underneath it about 6 inches, then stick a raised bed on the spot, fill it with dirt and plant it up. this is my last bed of the season. anything else i want to plant i am working into regular landscaping areas. this will probably include the mystery zucchini, a few melon plants, maybe a broccoli or brussel sprout start or two, and more carrots. i also have a crapload of fruit plants coming, so i need to cultivate some areas for them. we've got two blueberries, two currants, two rasberries, a few strawberries, a grape vine, a hops vine, and a blackberry vine on the way! after they're in, pictures will follow!

Link4 comments|Leave a comment

navigation
[ viewing | most recent entries ]
[ go | earlier ]

Advertisement