Exercise and cookies!

I finally found exercise motivation! I've always been pretty skinny, but I've never really had to exercise. I try to watch my diet and I've been a vegetarian for ages, so I guess that helps a little. I gained some weight my senior year of high school when I stopped taking PE and I didn't eat well, but then I got to college and lost it. Since then I've been working, running around, carrying books and a big backpack around, and climbing a lot of stairs. I was also on sort of a forced diet while in college. I didn't have much money or time, so I replaced quite a few meals with granola bars or a small salad. Anyway, that's why I've never needed to exercise. Then I got married, graduated, moved, and joined the ranks of the unemployed. So now I sit in my apartment at my computer. I do clean and play wii games, but that's not enough. I do most of the cooking and we rarely eat out, and I don't really want to change the way I eat, so I need to exercise. I know it's good for me and will potentially give me a better body, but that's never motivated me, especially now that I live in the cold, dreary pacific northwest rather than SoCal so I don't really feel the need to get my bikini body back (not that I ever really did). So what motivated me? All of my clothes are starting to get a little tight, and I love all my clothes. The thought of buying a whole new wardrobe (not to mention how much money that would cost) has convinced me to exercise. We'll see how long this motivation lasts, but that's all I have for now.

In other news, I just made cookies! (remember what I said about not changing the way I eat) I just made the basic recipe on the bag of chocolate chips, you know the one. But we really don't need a whole big batch of cookies sitting around tempting us. I also didn't want to make half a batch because then there would be half a bag of chocolate chips calling my name, and that's no good. Instead I baked up one sheet and tossed the rest in the freezer. Here's where the good idea comes in. I lined a container with plastic wrap and spooned 4 dollops in just like I did on the cookie sheet. I made sure they weren't touching. Then I put on more plastic wrap and spooned more cookies in. I did this until I was out of dough. It took as long to do this as it took to bake the cookies. Kismet! Then I wrote the baking instructions (and the date for the unlikely scenario that we forget about them) on an index card and tossed it in with the cookies (on top of a final layer of plastic wrap). That way I can bake up as many or as few as I want later without the hassle of cutting through a hard frozen tube of cookie dough. I know it's not a new idea, but I hope it's helpful.

Crafting and Hoarding

There seems to be a link between crafters and hoarders. To craft, do you need to hoard? I like to think that I'm not a hoarder, but maybe I'm in denial. I have a box of yarn and a drawer of knitting supplies, but I'm not saving toilet paper rolls and plastic bottles for a rainy day. Does my extensive yarn stash make me a hoarder? I'd classify myself as more of a knitter than a crafter anyway. But I see things all the time and think "I could do something with that" but I don't save it. The only times I save things that are ostensibly garbage or recyclables are when I have a project in mind, but even then the thought of saving every tp roll makes me shy away from certain crafts. Maybe I need an impartial third party to investigate my yarn box  to determine if I'm a craft hoarder or just an innocent knitter with a totally harmless yarn stash. I try not to buy yarn without a project in mind either, but I do tend to over buy yarn so most of my stash is leftovers. I've also been given some yarn over the years and won a couple of other skeins here and there, so that's my excuse. I'm going to stop writing now because it's starting to sound more and more like hoarding denial. What do you think? Do you hoard to craft or craft to hoard? Can you craft without hoarding? Am I just in hoarding denial?

BzzAgent CoverGirl Campaign

Hi All,

I've been a BzzAgent for a couple of months now. It's a website that allows you to participate in campaigns and learn about products then spread your opinions of them. It took me a while to get going, but now I'm participating in a CoverGirl Campaign that sounds really cool. I don't wear much makeup, but when I do it's CoverGirl! I chose it for my wedding because the Outlast Lipstain sounded perfect. It looked natural and allowed my husband to kiss the bride without worrying about staining his lips or smudging mine. You too can get into the action over on Facebook. Or join BuzzAgent for a chance to join other cool campaigns.

My CoverGirl wedding makeup!

In regular blog news: I just finished a sweater for my brother, so I'll post pictures once it's blocked. I'm also working on a faux fox stole. It's really cute so far, but I'm making it without a pattern and going more by feel. I'll probably post pictures once it's done. 

I'm back!

We spent Christmas and New Year's in California with our parents. I totally dropped the blogging ball, not to mention the ball on my brother's sweater. He'll be visiting us in about 2 weeks and I still have most of a sleeve and everything above the armpits to finish. Can I do it all in 2 weeks? How do you get motivated to pick up your knitting again? What do you do while knitting? I keep checking my computer, which isn't helping. I sometimes watch movies on my computer so I can't use it. What else should I do? What helps?

Physics Friday: Crocheted Mathematical Objects

I made a Klein bottle.

I used double crochet and worked mostly in rounds. I used double crochet so it would work up quickly and so the rows that are worked back and forth wouldn't stand out so much against the ones worked in rounds. I sort of made it up as I went. Here's my pattern:

Work in linked rounds, which means to slip stitch the last stitch into the third chain of the first stitch in the round. Start each round with a chain of 3 and count it as one double crochet. This happens every round so I won't mention it every time. Work in double crochet.
Chain 12 and join with a slip stitch to make a round
Rnd 1: double crochet each stitch around (12)
Rnd 2: work each stitch
Rnd 3: increase in every other stitch, double crochet twice in a stitch to increase (18)
Rnd 4: increase in every other (27)
Rnd 5: inc every other (40)

Rnd 6: work each stitch
Rnd 7: decrease every third. work every 3rd and 4th stitch together (30)
Row 8: turn work. decrease every 3rd (22)
Row 9: turn work. decrease every 3rd (16)

Rnd 10: work as a round slipping into first stitch across gap. decrease every 3rd (12)
Rnd 11-17: work in every stitch.

finishing: slip stitch to join. cut leaving a long tail for sewing. Invert start end and push it through the gap made by the rows. Sew to other end.

Gift wrapping idea: painted gift box

I'll be taking presents with me on a plane this year. You're not supposed to wrap presents before hand so I did this instead. I won't seal the box until I get to my destination. I dismantled a box I received in the mail. Turned it inside out and glued it back together. I painted the inside white to cover all the stickers and where I ripped off the paint. I painted a red bow on the outside and a simple gift tag. When that was dry I wrote who it was to and from with pen.

What kitchen supplies do you really need?

I don't have the best equipped kitchen in the world. I have what I was able to steal from my old apartment (my brother still lives there), what I was given by my parents and friends before moving, wedding presents, and a few things we bought after we moved. That sounds like a lot, but we really have a sort of random assortment of things.

I don't have any 8x8 or 9x9 inch square baking pans. Instead I use a 13x9 lined with aluminum foil to make it the right size. It's not pretty, but it does the job. The foil also makes clean up easier!

I don't have a mesh strainer. I want one, but in the meantime I can deal with it. I have a big colander that I can line with paper towels or clean kitchen towels for straining liquids. I have a small holed cheese grater that I can use for things that don't need to be as fine. I want a mesh strainer for sprinkling powdered sugar, but I haven't needed to do that yet.

Those are the only clever substitutions I've come up with so far.

Some things I wouldn't want to live without:

My kitchen aid stand mixer. It makes cakes super easy. I wouldn't want to make icing without it. I also used it for mixing yams on thanksgiving. I use it about once every two weeks, but I think it deserves a permanent place on my counter. I like it better than a hand mixer because I can use it for bread (if I ever make any) and I can leave it running without having to hold it. I can have it whip egg whites or cream while I work on something else. Hand mixers are alway too heavy for me and I don't have the patience to make whipped cream with them.

A big pasta pot with a colander insert thing for easy draining. I don't know what it's technically called. Making pasta is super easy and I don't have to lug a pot of boiling water to the sink and then try to get it all in the colander. This is much easier for me. I also used it when making broth. I put all of the vegetables in the insert and then just pulled it out when it was finished. I didn't have to fish everything out or deal with big cheesecloth bags or any of that hassle. Then I put the broth into a big pitcher for easy access during Thanksgiving.

An immersion blender. My mom just bought one for us, so I lived without it for a while. (She bought us a red one that matches our kitchen aid!) I prefer a hand blender to a countertop one. I like being able to blend a smoothie right in the cup I'll drink it out of. I've also had bad luck transferring boiling soup into a blender and then into another pot. This requires less pouring of boiling liquid (always something I avoid) and less clean up. I don't have to clean two pots and the blender. I just clean one pot and the hand blender. I love anything that requires less clean up.