Yogurt

The other day I went to a fancy pants store that sells fancy pants cheese and I thought "Oh yum, I will treat myself to a fancy cheese!" But then I saw the prices and decided I didn't need the calories anyway. But I did get inspired to make my own cheese! I immediately called up a friend who had said she was going to make cheese, but as it turns out she never did. She did, however, buy a book. Which is a step farther than I had gotten, so I was able to borrow her book, Home Cheese Making.
To be honest, I haven't actually looked at the book yet. Because then I found this website and it said to start by making yogurt, and gave step-by-step instructions how to do that. So today, that's what we did! It's been a rainy, cold day, and so I'm disinclined to do my outside chores and my inside chores were done yesterday (What an idiot! It was not raining yesterday!) so it's a perfect day for some food-making projects.
I HATE the way the website's instructions are set up, the guy could seriously use a good graphic designer to make the instructions more clear to follow (wink, nudge) but I think it's probably the best place online for these instructions nonetheless. I think I'd be more successful if I re-wrote them in a format that makes more sense to me. A mistake was made, but it wasn't fatal.
See, first you bring milk to 185 degrees.

And then, you let it cool to 130 (we put it in a sink of cool water, and pour in your starter culture. Basically, through no one's fault but my own (well, probably Nitro's fault since he said "You don't need to make a slurry, just pour in the starter!") I poured in my starter when the heated milk was still 185 degrees, and it should have cooled to 130, THEN added the starter.

So I think we killed our culture upon impact. Fortunately for me, I had another tub of plain yogurt in the fridge to put in there ... so we waited until the milk was at 130, and added more culture. Hopefully that was an okay thing to do. Maybe not. The milk did begin to clump up (you can see that in the picture) and I'm not sure if that is what it was supposed to do or not. I'm guessing yes, but maybe not, since it was so hot. We shall see! We have to let the stuff incubate for 3 hours before knowing for sure if it worked.
Right now, it's sitting in the ice chest, incubating.

Five Professions

I'm injured, and stuck doing things that keep me off my feet. It's torture. But it means that I have time to post.
Last night a group of friends had dinner together and one asked us "If you could be anything in the world, even if it's totally impossible, imaginary, or ridiculous, what would you be? Name 5 professions you'd choose." My immediate thought was "Impossible! I can't think of anything! I like what I'm doing ..."
One friend answered that it would have to be something creative, because the act of creation is inherent in him (us all?) and it's the most fulfilling. To create and to have an audience learn/grow from that creation. I couldn't agree more. For him, it was music. The idea of being able to write beautiful music. And to teach. To give others the tools and inspiration to go out and create for themselves. Again, I was in total agreement. But for me, it's visual arts more than music (though the idea of being able to express myself in music sounds not only impossible, but amazing!). And so while teacher was on the list (which I took a bit far by saying I wanted to be a divine goddess/teacher, but hey, we're fantasizing here, right?), I also said I wanted to paint, to paint the most beautiful, inspiring, life-altering paintings ever created. Why not aim high!? Also on the list, an architect/city planner. I'd love to design and build communities that are thoughtful, truly communal, practical, whimsical, beautiful, smart. And finally, I want to study animals and learn to communicate with them.
And while this was an exercise in fantasy, I almost shamefully admit that there's a small part of me that thinks I could actually do this stuff. But I better get busy

Where to start?

I've been feeling like starting something these past few days. It probably has to do with the torrential rain and cold outside. Also probably something to do with the unsatisfactory completion of the last project ... the whirlygig scarf ended up way too short because I ran out of yarn. That was disappointing. But I have vowed to not buy any more anythings ever. No, really!
I have like 3 rubbermaid bins of fabric. And another bin of yarn. All of which was purchased with a project half-in-mind. I can't say it was with a specific project in mind, because there were never any actual plans. I didn't have patterns, or even all the ingredients necessary to make any of the projects. I just got inspired by the textiles and I needed to have them for when I was ready to make something. And then they just sit around. And they tend to loom over me (not only because they're on a shelf above my computer) and make me feel pretty lame.
So I have lame vibes coming at me from all over -- the failed scarf, and also the sundress I made last summer that never really got finished. I didn't hem it, because I don't know how to make it a straight hem if I'm not wearing it and I don't know how to actually do the hemming while it's on me. I'm sure this is one of those things that has an easy solution, but I don't know what it is. But I wore it last summer when it was so hot even I was considering not wearing clothing (and if you knew me this would be shocking) and so I wore it unhemmed and then washed it and some parts of it unraveled and it's just a disaster. I don't know how to fix it. I should definitely fix it. Sigh.
So anyway, there have been projectitis rumblings going on around here. The sewing cabinet is opened. So that's a good sign that some sewing will be getting done soon. I just need to buy thread. Uh, nope! I'm not buying anything ever, I forgot!
The other thing is that darn canvas, the one that used to have the mares painting? I think it is going to be a deep-sea creature now. I'm really excited about that. Only issue? I really ought to buy some new acrylic paint, because I'm limited to like olive green and rusty red (and yellow? I think I have yellow) at this point. And my deep sea creatures are not those colors. I need to buy paints, mix colors. I need to do it right. So that one's on hold too. Though I did pull out all my paints and brushes in anticipation of working on it.

Anyway, I do have a bunch of yarn, but only one skein of each sort, so I have to get a little creative. I really hope I have enough for this one. I think it's going to be beautiful. Maybe. I'm never sure if it's going to work out (what do you do with the hanging out ends? How do you change colors and make it look seamless? I'm afraid this one is going to be another failure, too. But as I made that last ruffled scarf, I kept thinking of things you could do to embellish it, and this was one of my thoughts ... RIBS! It doesn't seem to be ruffling like the last one. Maybe the ribs are hindering it. I don't know. I'm afraid to find out. But aren't the colors just beautiful? I had to had to had to buy that teal yarn because the color was just painfully beautiful. I had planned on making a felted hat out of it. But then I was afraid to try that, because what if the hat doesn't fit? At least a scarf will fit. I hope.

Zero Waste

A comment on my previous entry made me think of this article from Sunset Magazine.
Did anyone else see this?
What do you think?
Am I the only one who feels like maybe this woman has a problem? Like, it's pathological the level to which she's taken her values?
I am all on board reducing the level of waste in my home. I am even on board about not buying anything new, or anything in unnecessary packaging. Totally get it. And, I even totally get the desire to not have a bunch of stuff in my house. I would love to have a clutter-free life. Totally get it.
But, to not have hobbies or participate in activities that require "stuff" just blows my mind. It seems so limiting! I admit, I may have too many hobbies and participate in too many activities. But what do they *do* with their time? Actually, I probably know the answer to that. They spend *all* their time trying to figure out how to get around some of the necessary clutter and waste in life. It must be exhausting.
P.S. Sending the trash that comes with your Netflix subscription *back* to where it came from does not mean you don't generate any trash. It just means someone else has to deal with it. TOTALLY doesn't count.

As promised ... the "after" pictures

The whole closet fiasco has turned out to be really one of the best things we could have done. Granted, the sun has come out, so the upturn in mood may be not solely attributed to the great cleaning/purge, but I like to think of it as the turning point of my winter. Everything looked bad until that day.
So, yes, attached are photos that prove that my husband rules.
:)

In the spirit of full disclosure, I must admit that I liked the closet best when there wasn't any stuff in it. But even now it's still all nicely and neatly arranged. All my shoes are in boxes, all the bedding is in bins, sweaters are in bins, clothes are hung up. I'm not sure how long that will last. Hopefully because it's so *easy* now, it will last forever.
Oh! Bonus! My vacuum now lives in the closet! It used to not have any place to live, so it stayed in a corner in the living room. Now, it has its own nook in the closet, right next to the step-ladder that used to be shoved into a corner in the kitchen. Yay for places to put things!

Inspired!

Not so long ago, a friend shared these amazing coats with me. I fell in love, and my craving for one of those coats was crazy-huge. I told myself, "No matter the cost, I totally will get one, because they're amazing, and I deserve it, and the artist deserves to be selling these like mad." And then I saw the prices, and changed my tune entirely. Well, not entirely. She still deserves to be selling her coats like mad. Just not to me, because that's mad amounts of money. I can't do it.
It's the same sort of thing that happens when I go into Fiona Bleu, my most favorite store (and the owner is THE NICEST guy) in Morro Bay. I always say to myself, "Hey, it's probably a good idea to buy some art. I want to support these amazing artists, and I want some amazing art on my walls. I bet they could do some layaway for me." And then I go in there and think, "Hm. That's more money than I make in a year. Maybe not." But then I leave the place all crazy-inspired, and totally ready to start making art myself.
So, yeah. Those Katwise coats did it to me. But I don't have the skillset (or the right tools!) to do something like that. So I thought. Just yesterday Mother Earth News shared this book on their Facebook page (coincidence? I think not!) So I checked out The Sweater Chop Shop on Amazon and decided that maybe I could do it. Maybe I should try. It looks like just another huge mess I could make, no? Ah, but it would be pretty fun.

Unexpected projects

Well, I may have not been feeling creative, and I certainly wasn't feeling energized, but when I asked friends "what to do on a rainy day?" and someone said "Clean out your closets!" the thought stuck. It was the perfect project for a person who's been feeling like getting rid of stuff. Also, it's been a pretty damp year, and that means mold sometimes builds up on some of the stuff in the back of the closet. Whoa, was I in for a surprise though, when we finally pulled everything out.
Black mold. All over.

I was pretty upset. And then to find it all over the bedroom, yuck.
This actually was good to find out, because after doing some research, we learned that all the symptoms I've been suffering from all month (headache, not able to breathe well, depression, being tired all the time) are actually symptoms of black mold exposure. And here I thought I had a virus that I couldn't kick. Or that I needed to go see a shrink or something. But it makes sense, and to know what it is makes me feel a lot better already.
So, we scrubbed it all down with bleach (which is awful, the bleach stench makes me feel worse than the mold), and then we decided that we really need to prevent this from happening again. There are two big problems with this closet that are contributing to the problem, as well as making the closet not as functional as it should be. One is that there is a window (because it didn't use to be a closet), but the clothing racks were in the corner smooshed against the window, so the window had to be covered to keep the clothes from getting bleached from the sun. If the window could let light in, and if it could be opened, then the moisture problem wouldn't be as bad. Also, having the clothes in the corner made them hard to access. So we took out everything, and decided to re-arrange the whole closet to allow for air flow, to allow for better access to the clothes and also to allow for better organization.

Of course, this means that everything that was in the closet is now on my dining table. And it will be there for a while, because we had to make a trip to the hardware store in order to construct the new shelves. It was 3:30 or so when we decided to head to the hardware store, and by the time we got out, it was POURING rain, and we didn't get home until late and of course the rain meant that the creek had risen and we couldn't drive across it to get home. The joys of living in the sticks. Sigh.
All our lumber spent the night in the back of the truck and progress on the closet project was halted.
No matter. We made kiwi sorbet instead. Because we had a TON of kiwis from our CSA box that we needed to do something with.
BUT, I did spend part of the evening with the label maker and a stack of plastic bins. Yes, everything is going to be organized in bins! I'm so excited about this. It feels like the best thing in the world to happen to my closet. Bedding in one bin. Sweaters in another bin. Bellydance bras in another. Belts in this one, hats in that one! Oh, hooray!
Hopefully, I'll remember to take pictures and you can see the rest of the progress. I think this will be good. Yesterday morning, I was so upset I was ready to move ASAP. But now I'm feeling a bit better. I have Nitro to thank for that, really. He sorta talked me out of my panic and frustration and helped come up with a solution and helped make the solution start to happen.