It’s That Time Again

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No, it’s not time to spin the Wheel of Morality… it’s time for “Me Made May But Make It Weird,” aka the outfit challenge month where you get dressed with unhinged prompts and stuff you’ve made.

There’s a whole blog post this year with the creator of the challenge (and the full list of prompts) but this will give you an idea:
Blue text on a white background. Text says, "May 10: Your cougar neighbour on her third fiancé who has, among other things, an electric unicycle @textals May 11: Your other neighbour who knows more than they should about that cougar next door... including the electric unicycle@textals May 12: Your podcast has 12 listeners and all of them are concerned about"

I’m having fun over on Instagram thinking up outfits. Probably the person who’s most entertained is myself, but why make all these clothes if you can’t have fun with them?

Tuesday Socks, Finally

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I haven’t finished a pair of socks in a long time (too distracted by sweaters) but I was organizing my knitting bags and saw I only had a few more rows on the second sock of this pair, so I got it done. A pair of rainbow stripe socks on a fulffy white sheepskin

 

The yarn was from Harmony a couple years ago, “Laines du Nord Eclectic Sock.” The stripe repeat was so long and random I didn’t bother trying to make them match. But hooray, pretty socks! And hooray for knitting, which has never made me have a meltdown.

A Theme, Perhaps

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A slightly burnt blueberry pie with colorful candles in it Two lengths of patterned fabric laid out on a rug pad Not shown in this weekend’s pictures: my meltdown over getting the pies my nephew requested too brown; my meltdown over not being able to actually fit the intended patterns on the fabric I laid out for cutting; my meltdown over making a grocery list so we can go to Trader Joe’s. HMMM…

At least today is a new day?

Friday Links

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1. Happy May Day, comrades! Today’s fact: there are maybe 1,000 billionaires in the US; there are 174 million workers. A poster with two sections. The top section has a large fish pursuing many small scattered fish. The bottom section has the small fish formed into the shape of a larger fish and it is chasing the larger fish from the toip section. Text says, DO NOT PANIC. ORGANIZE.

 

2. Something to listen to as you participate in the GENERAL STRIKE today: A YouTube DJ spinning “Soviet & Socialistic Grooves from 60s-70s.”  The whole channel rocks, I’ve been listening to sets all week. (That same DJ has a set with 78s!)

 

3. Check out the Busy Beaver Button Museum, whose mission “is to share as much American history as possible through pin-back buttons.” It’s really easy to get sucked in to all the different categories and I love the format of just, “Look at all these buttons!”

an evenly spaced grid of different colorful pinback buttons with protest slogans

Happy Birthday, Skyler

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Our nephew is FIFTEEN today! Here is in January (on the far left) looking like he’s walking off the Casablanca air field.

Two cadets march towards a hanger with lighted windows. The cadet on the left is taller.

That photo is from him receiving the Amelia Earhart Award (granted for “sustained excellence in all four areas of cadet life: leadership, aerospace, fitness, and character”) in Civil Air Patrol.

And “sustained excellence” is really a good way of summing up Skyler. He’s SUCH a good person: incredibly smart but not bratty about it, kind and empathetic, a deep thinker, and a problem solver (he wants to run for political office and I say good for him, let’s do it).

He may be essentially grown up and planning world domination, but I remember when he didn’t have any teeth and got the nickname “Bubbs” because he loved to blow bubbles with his spit–and was just as much of a delight to be an auntie to.
A baby looks over the edge of a couch and smiles

Happy birthday, Skyler! We love you. And be careful when you get your learner’s permit!!

Chicken Dilettante Progress

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Seven months into eating chicken, I’m amazed I found anything to eat as a vegetarian. I remember thinking, often, “It’d be a lot easier to just eat meat,” and wow was I right. Do I still think about how the chicken lived and try to make better choices? Of course–but now I’m choosing to eat it after that. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

I am getting better at cooking it, though. I tried the lemon potato chicken dish again with skin-on chicken this time, and look at that. Much more appetizing!

Roast chicken pieces on a bed of potatoes and garbanzos

I’ve even tried a whole roast chicken a few times (the bag of giblets IN the whole chicken gave me pause, but I persisted). (Smitten Kitchen recipe used here; I don’t love cabbage that much but it was fine.)
A roast chicken on a bed of purple cabbage

But honestly, my favorite/most successful ways to cook it so far are to chuck it in a pot and forget about it: Clay pot with herb butter, crock pot honey-chipotle, even “rotisserie” style in the slow cooker.

That last recipe feels slightly wrong but it does get you lots of moist chicken to use in … chicken pot pie! Two baked chicken pot pies on a sheet pan

What’s the dilettante motto again? “Sucking at something is the first step to being sorta good at something!”

Tuesday Project Roundup: Day Off, New Bag

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We had a canceled vacation a few weeks ago (Doc’s mom is having health issues) but I still wanted to go somewhere on my day off. I ended up at the creative re-use store 40 minutes from home and saw an entire poppy red leather hide for TWELVE DOLLARS; I immediately decided to make a project with it, as one does.
A coral leather hide and bag pattern pieces and hardware on a white fluffy rug

This fashion belt bag pattern had crossed my radar the week before and I realized I could re-create a $395 designer bag pretty convincingly with that pattern and hide.
Screengrab of the Calre V site showing a model wearing a poppy red crossbody pouch

…Just like this!
A homemade poppy red leather pouch with a tan checkered strap, laying on a fluffy white sheepskin

This hide was thicker than my last leather sewing project and my machine struggled a bit, so I decided not to line the bag. (It’s not like leather is going to fray.)  I didn’t do a matching strap so I wouldn’t have to sew triple thicknesses of leather, but a contrast strap is also something the designer does: Screenshot from the Clare V site showing a tan bag with a contrast red and navy stripe strap

I added leather tabs to the end of the strap to make it look more intentional, like the ready-made one, and reverse-engineered the strap mechanics from the pictures on the site.

I hadn’t been sidetracked by a new project in a while; this was fun to just obsess over for a couple free days. And now I have a lifetime supple of leather so I can make all the bags I want!

Rain Poem

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It was a wet weekend here, which was honestly kind of nice–I got to putter around the house and take naps. No complaints.

 

To the Rain
by Ursula LeGuin

Mother rain, manifold, measureless,
falling on fallow, on field and forest,
on house-roof, low hovel, high tower,
downwelling waters all-washing, wider
than cities, softer than sisterhood, vaster
than countrysides, calming, recalling:
return to us, teaching our troubled
souls in your ceaseless descent
to fall, to be fellow, to feel to the root,
to sink in, to heal, to sweeten the sea.