Ha! Completely caught up on posting my daily drawings. It will go back to one to two a day now. That feels good to have them all scanned in and on flickr and here on the blog.

Can you believe it? Day 73? And I thought I would just be doing this for a month. It’s turned into something so much more than that. I’m really enjoying it. It’s not just improving my skills, but it’s keeping me in my sketchbook more overall. In fact, I’ll be doing some drawing this afternoon… granted it’s for my book, but still, should be fun. And I feel more confident about it since I’ve got 73 days of drawing under my belt.

I made a little box to hold my drawings and it’s getting pretty close to being full. I think it’s about time to make another one. Well, in 17 days. I think 3 months worth in each box is a good amount.

Have a great weekend!

Kristin Roach

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{this little guy is a mole, he was pictured in my gardening catalog and I just had to draw him}

I’ve been trying to stay home on Sundays (or at least out of the office), so no posting drawings on Sundays. That seems reasonable.

Sunday was pretty busy, but really fun. We had a great charity sewing workshop yesterday for ames c.art. We made 25 hats and 18 scarves for the Emergency Residence Program! They were so happy to have them when I dropped them off last night.

I came home and made dinner. A full dinner. Table set with a candle and everything. A great pasta with toast and salad. The homemade dressing was way to vinegary, but the rest was delicious. I’ll post the recipe for the pasta next week for the thrift kitchen thursday on craft leftovers.

I starting making banana bread for dessert, but we were out of eggs! So I tossed the batter in the frig and made up the grocery list for the week. I mapped out the whole week’s worth of meals and Jason and I went grocery shopping. Then I finished the bread and knit for the rest of the evening. It was wonderful!

I came up with a new meal plan mapping plan {expect a new printout soon, haha}. It’s divided into 4 catagories: Breakfast, Lunch, Snacks, Dinner. I make a general list of things to have on hand for breakfast, lunch and snacks, then plan 3 main dinners to cook. Then I schedule the dinners so they make sense with my schedule for the upcoming week.

I’m going to try a few new recipes this week:
Hummus from the Vegetarian Lunchbox
French Dressing from the Vegetarian Lunchbox
Smoky White Chili with Potatoes from 125 Best Vegetarian Slow Cooker Recipes
Escarole salad with apples and pecans from Everyday Food Jan 2009
Salmon with escarole and lemon from Everyday Food Jan 2009

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I went through two shelves this week (very hard work for me) and purged a box of books I know I will never read. And I did something for the first time – I took them to FireHouse books and exchanged them for $12 in store credit, which I then turned around and used on 1 book I really enjoy. You see, I have put together a box of books many times, but they never actually make it out of the house, furthering the clutter issues. 

The book I traded in for is “Voiced of American Homemakers”. It is a collection of interviews conducted by the Oral History Project of the National Extension of Homemakers Council.

Beulah Rawlings, 76, of Indiana said when asked about food preservation, “We raised what we ate, and ate what we raised. You didn’t go into town and buy it, so it really was important to put your garden out and really take care of it, and take care of it when it was ready to harvest.”

It makes me feel a little guilty about putting my garden out late, then only half assing it these past two months. If it was crucial to me vs a hobby, and granted I love that it is not and we won’t starve if the weather sucks, maybe I would have made it more of a priority. I do have a few cucumbers, but not as many as I could have if I would have planted them when I should and watered them like I knew I was supposed to. 

“When I was a girl up North, before pressure canners, we never canned much vegetables because it was all put in the cellar. We canned fruits and tomatoes, but that was about the only thing we canned…. In our cellars we put in our carrots and potatoes and onions and turnips and we even had a big bin fixed up from celery…” – Elsie Gould, 86, Florida

I really like the idea of a root cellar. Mike (who owns the yard where the garden is and is in on it with me) has a nice semi finished basement and we are going to try to store all our potatoes and onions and garlic down there. I sure hope it works okay and we can enjoy our harvest as long as possible. 

We have a load of basil, dill, parsley, and other herbs. Plus many cherry tomatoes and some peppers on the way. I decided to do some small batch preserving this week for the basil that is plentiful. Pesto was totally the answer to how to keep basil fresh for the winter months. Once we get more tomatoes, I’m going to make some marinara sauce and can that too – I’ll post about that when the time comes along with my favorite recipe for sauce. 

You can read about my pesto exploits on Craft Leftovers, I posted about it today for the Thrift Kitchen post.

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I made a little tomato for my future doll house

Which reminds me, I just won a set of three doll parts on ebay! They are 1 1/2″ scale (I think) and are the type where you attach a little stuffed body/legs. Pretty much it is 3 little porcelain heads and 3 sets of hands. I’m excited, it will be fun to make their bodies and a few mini clothes. There are two kiddos and one lady. I’m thinking I’ll just use the kiddos for now. Maybe the lady will be my “test” for the body. 

I then went on to reorganized 2 cupboards – all the food stuff in one cabinet and all the med/supplement/non food stuff in another. Work out (leg lifts, crunches, and ran on the eliptical for 25 minutes and walked home – I love the walk home). Made chicken tacos that then turned into chicken lettuceless tacos and then turned into hard shell-less tacos. We decided to toss in the spanish rice and cheese and tomatoes in with the chicken and called it a burrito! ha! So it goes. The lettuce was mush and the taco shells had moths in them! Even though we hadn’t even opened the package! So frustrating. We have moth issues. Any ideas? Maybe some lavender or cedar chips? Right now I’m sucking all those f-ers up in the vacuum and keeping any grains in the frig. I didn’t think they could get into a sealed plastic package, but I guess I was wrong. 

It has been a really great day. I still can’t believe I was able to write 3 posts and take all the photos for the tutorial on Friday! It feels good to work ahead. I am helping cover at the local yarn shop on Friday, visiting with a friend tomorrow, and helping out at the chocolate shop on Saturday morning and then I’m conducting an interview on Monday in Des Moines and have a class (maybe) Monday night to teach. Having all this taken care of really helps to keep the stress level low. I’m hoping to work 2 full weeks ahead in the featured posts (tutorials, thrift kitchen, and apartment redress posts) by the end of the month. I’ll be a week ahead by Monday and then two weeks ahead by next week. Which will be great for my clm crunch week. 

I want to get that tutorial finished and scheduled tonight so I can work on Craft Leftovers Monthly and some other projects. Oh I have such an amazing project to tell you about, but I want to get a little more info collected and take at least one picture before I share it with you. It involves… paint and a huuuuge wall! Have a great night!

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Being without school or an out of the home job left me floating from snack to snack, not planning my trips to the grocery store, or my meals for that matter. I noticed a downward trend over the last year. Every time I hit a big deadline (at least once a month) I throw health to the wind and eat out too much, eat crap food too much, and eat too late at night too much. Then when I meet the deadline I “treat” myself, furthering the downward trend. It takes a few days to get out of this routine and start eating healthy again. And by healthy I mean relative to what I was eating the week before. With each passing deadline my definition of “healthy” declined severely. Well, no more! I’ve rebooted the whole freaking system.

I started with making working out a priority – I am now at the end of week 6 of working out (3 days strength training, 2 days cardio and abs). I’ve slotted it in my schedule, set up my classes, meetings, and workshops around it, and even when I was in the midst of working on Craft Leftovers Monthly, I still went 3 times that week. Last week I also rebooted the fly lady program.

After Market Day I did a huge cleaning (just putting all the craft stuff away), reset up my “control journal” {link}, and have been doing my daily chores for a week straight now! And wow can you tell the difference around here. It is getting clean. Like really clean. Our coat closet now has coats in it instead of random crap! It’s amazing.

The past 2 weeks I’ve been eating much better too. Focusing on smaller portions, more veggies and fruits, not eating late at night, cutting down on my caffeine, etc etc etc (you know the voice I’m using sis). But now that I’m heading into the time where I will be teaching 4-5 days a week, working on top secret projects# 2 and #3, working on Craft Leftovers Monthly, and etc etc etc, how will I hold it together. Sure I can spend an hour cooking each day now, but what about in 2 weeks when I’ll be running from class to workshop to writing to making to sleep?

Jason and I decided to make some burrito/enchiladas to freeze and eat later. The perfect solution! You can get the recipe on Craft Leftovers, I just posted it for the Thrift Kitchen post {link}. 

It turns out, my friend Sarah has a similar interest, so we are going to start meeting a few times a month to cook in bulk, divide, and conquer.  I really want to have a nice regular stock pile of good food to eat when I get into a time pinch. I’m sick of sacrificing my health for my projects. I think this will be a great way to make them both a priority. Sarah has the book Don’t Panic – Dinner’s in the Freezer and we will be starting out with recipes and methods for mass cooking provided there. 

Another issue Sarah and I both have is that our partners do not like veggies. And so we tend to cook with them less than we should. I found this book at borders today that was just perfect. It’s called the The Sneaky Chef: How to Cheat on Your Man (In the Kitchen!): Hiding Healthy Foods in Hearty Meals Any Guy Will Love. If I can sneak cauliflower into chili without complaints, well that is huge! So, armed with a 40% off coupon I took the plunge and brought it home. 

The main idea of the cook book is to “cut calories and increase volume with low-cal, nutritious ‘fillers’ “. So for instance, instead of a straight up meat sauce, you “hide” veggies in it by chopping them finely or pureeing them, adding tofu to egg salad, and pureed white beans to mustard. She has quite a few make ahead recipes for fillers to be added to the other recipes in the book. You don’t want your family seeing your pureeing cauliflower and adding it to the mashed potatoes, make it ahead of time and sneak it in there in plain site. The White Puree (make ahead recipe #4) is actually zucchini, lemon juice, and cauliflower. Neat! 

I also, with my swag bucks, bought the book Cook Once a Week, Eat Well Every Day: Make today. You make a meal on say Sunday, then eat variations of it for the next few days. I’m hoping that between sneaking in veggies, freezing meals ahead, and using time saving methods and creative leftovers, I will continue to eat healthy even when things get completely crazy.

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On a completely different note I’ve been reading the books I picked up from the library and am really impressed with them. I’ll share my favorites with you soon!

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So I got up yesterday morning by 7am and got over to the garden by 7:50am. 2 solid hours of weeding left the garden looking pretty awesome – I have to say it was much better than I had thought it would be because Mike had been going out and weeding on his lunch break – but there were a lot of spots where he couldn’t tell what was weed or what was herb, so he let it be – the best thing to do really.

Here is when I first finished planting the garden before I left to the Maker’s Faire in May:

And this is what it’s looking like now (before I weeded everything and cut down those trees back by the fence:

Everything is growing at a good steady pace, but the cauliflower has been decimated by catapillers, the strawberries have been beat down by the rain, and the raspberries and blackberries, well 1 of 3 of each are looking great.

I think the soil is pretty good overall, but could use some more organic materials in it. I think it’s a bit sandier than it should be for the raspberries and strawberries. Now that everything is pretty much up and growing well, I would like to set some mulch down or maybe some more straw.

I’m going to put in some flowers where things didn’t grow – the nasturtiums didn’t sprout at all, so sad, I love those. Nor did the orgegano. Yesterday I went to Lowes and picked up some annuals and herbs that were on sale for $2 each and there were 4 plants in each pot. I’m hopeful I can seperate them out and fill out the garen plots. If anything it’s something that can go into the compost at the end of the year – which is also doing really well.

Peat, Manure, steaks, gardening gloves, natural insecticide (like a soap mix stuff with ash in it or some such thing) and some – gasp – miracle grow. I hate to admit it because I usually go straight up organic. I looked at the back and it’s supposed to be “natural” but I have no delusions about the fact that it most likely is a long stretch from what nature actually makes.

Sunday morning will be all about tying things up and harvesting. All the herbs I planted are doing amazing as is the salad mix bed. Oh and we need to do our second sowing of seeds, more salad mix, beans, peas, spinach. I’m going to change up the location a bit – the greens going along the back fence where the raspberries didn’t take and where they may get a bit more shelter from the sun.

I’m going to make a regular habit of going over there to draw the various things in the garden – there are more than just plants you know, many neat spiders and other bugs. Maybe we can make friends and they will stop eating all my spinach and cauliflower.

Well, I need to get that pattern up for Craft Leftovers – it was way too late to try to take pictures last night, they all came out looking so bad. So much for being ahead of schedule. Nah, I shouldn’t say that. I do already have monday and tuesday’s post done, as well as a post for july. It’s all good. I just need to get ahead with the patterns too is all.

-K

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Here is my bike (I love you bike!) and my new trailer. I went with a kid trailer because they were about $250 less expensive than a flat bed and as it turns out, work better for what I will be using it for – groceries, mail, packages, studio supplies, sewing rebellion set up (table, sewing machine, rubbermaid, and one tote of food and misc).

And unlike a flat bed I can really secure things in there just by using the straps and velcro provided. And I can take the top off and leave the sides down for hauling larger/taller things. It’s like a flat bed and a little cart pod. Perfect!

I was so happy today to finally take my new trailer out for it’s first working trip. I went to the grocery store and was able to haul:

All my recycling (trip there)
one 10lb bag of charcoal (fit perfectly in the "foot" area)
4 bags of groceries

I barely made it home and my legs were shot – it was great!

Check this out, there is a secret back compartment to my trailer, shhh, don’t tell anyone.  It’s the perfect place to store my rain gear, bag, repair kit, and reusable grocery bags. Perfect!

I’m so excited that I finally broke in my trailer. It completely kicked my butt – well, legs and lungs really – so I’m going to keep it hooked up to my bike and just ride around with it so I can get used to hauling it. In two weeks time I’m going to take it -completely loaded up- to the sewing rebellion.

And I’m happy to report I only used the car twice last week and I rode my bike for transport 3 times and the bus once. I’m getting there, it will just take time. I’m limiting my car use to twice a week and then in May it will go down to once a week.

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I have many things to report, so I’m goign to do a series of three quick posts today. See you in 10!

Kristin

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Here is a quick list of new things (with quick pictures):

1. New self portrait that sucks a little less than the last one.

2. I cut my hair (and you can also see how bad the above self portait is by seeing what I really look like):

3. I got a hippo in a trade for yarn – it is so freaking awesome! – from Fun Is Always In Style.

4. I dyed yarn (it will go in the shop this week coming up) – I tried a new hand painting method and I really like how it turned out:

5. I’m knitting some mittens for my friend Emily:

6. I rearranged my studio:

7. I am making progress on my Scrap Quilt:

8. I started a new pair of socks:

9. I figured out what I want to do for my sweater and am making progress on it again.

10. I’ve been spinning.

11. I received this great zine/kit bundle and am now a member of the diy weavers club!

12. I organized my hooks and needles.

And that concludes the pictorial list of things. In other non picture news:

1. I worked my last day at the chocolate shop last week – I’m still on call so if they need me, I will if possible – but I’m not on the schedule anymore and that’s a big step in the right direction.

2. I’m now teaching fiber art classes at the octagon, knitting at the WorkSpace, and crochet at the RoseTree – hooray!

3. I’m working on a secret article project for one of my favorite magainzes.

4. I received a copy of the book I have a project in this past week – giveaway, preview, and more details coming soon

5. I’m working on my own book – I’m hoping to have a prototype to show around at the end of March if not sooner.

6. Kro Studio is well underway to get a good work over visually with business cards, newsletter, and fliers (for classes), so that is super exciting, I can’t wait.

7. The Sewing Rebellion is going to 2 times a month next month! the second and forth sunday of each month.

8. Food poisoning two weekend in a row! I need to get a little insulated bag for things I pick up while I’m out and about so I don’t let them spoil before eating – it’s not -20 anymore where they are okay after being in my bag all day! Hummus the first time and Brie the second.

9. I’m starting a garden in my friend’s yard and we are doing the first planning of it tonight.

10. I updated my class list for the upcoming quarter (March – May). There are many new classes and exciting things, plus I put just about everything into google calender so you can click though that too! I don’t have all the specifics yet (cost and material fees for instance), but will add them as I get info verified.

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Ahhhhh, okay, big breath. I think that pretty much gets us up to speed on everything. Now I feel free to post little random updates each day. I don’t feel like there is so much to catch up on. I might extrapulate on some of the above topics too. Especially the process/story of the sweater, which is pretty funny I think and deserves a post all it’s on.

So I will see you soon and am happy to get back into blogging again. I sure was missing it while i was going through this crazy time of “exhilarating and exhausting”

See you soon!
Kristin

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Basically Jason and I are now both officially giving full time self employment a try… which means no money! Or at least just barely enough to get by. Pretty much anything that can be cut is getting cut, including the grocery bill.

And that leads me to Thrift Kitchen. To sum up: I love good food and I love good cooking. Thrift Kitchen is all about cooking on a tight budget. Really good food, really inexpensively!

After telling two friends about the blog, it’s mission, and the ideas I had for various posts, they became as excited as I am about having a Thrift Kitchen. It has turned into a collaborative project of friends with the goal of sharing ideas, knowledge, and recipes for cooking well on a meager budget. We are all on a tight budget and we all love cooking with good food. Mostly vegetarian with some local meats in the mix is the foundation of our cooking styles.

So go check it out it! I just posted about how to cook dry beans and a recipe for some great 4 bean chili!

See you all soon!
Kristin

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I mean, don’t you need to see the poses in motion flowing from one to the next to get it right? Well, not neccessarially. If you can’t see what they are really doing on the tv because said butt is in air, it’s not really too helpful. I was starting to get frustrated. Enter the Woman’s Book of Yoga and Health:

And then I remembered, I have a book on yoga, a really good book. And it goes into the minusia of each pose. Covering not just the benefits of each pose to your body and mind, but also all the intricasies of the pose, where you will feel the stretch, how you should be holding yourself, grounding yourself, breathing when and how. Jason purchased it for me some time ago, I would say 3 years? And when I used it before it was really helpful.

I was doubtful about this book when I first picked it up off the shelf. I was really worried it would just be another one of those fluff yoga books that were all over the place 3-4 years ago. And I was surprised to find it filled with solid information, the history of the poses, why certain poses are good during certain parts of our cycle (daily, monthly, and life long cycles). It covers the importants of breathing technique and how yoga can become a strong component of daily meditation. No fluff here.

Back then, believe it or not, I actually got to the point where I was doing this pose in my daily routine each morning:

I really like this book and am happy to say that since pulling it off the shelf I’ve started doing yoga daily again. And it feels good. I’m starting out with some very simple poses and just for 15 minutes a day.

I would highly recommend this book for anyone starting out in yoga. It’s a good compliment to classes or a video for sure and it’s also just good on it’s own. At the very least go check it out from your local library.

+++++++++++++ Switching gears a bit ++++++++++++++++++

It’s strange the riggors of acidemia, I really feel like I’m trying to get my body and mind back to where I was when I first moved to dekalb. I was riding my bike everyday when I moved there (as soon as I got a bike that is), I was a pretty strict vegetarian (which doesn’t = health I know, but for me it really did), I was doing yoga, I was getting up in the morning to go paint outside, I was drawing everyday, I was reading all the time, knitting all the time, I was getting good at the cello. I want to get back to that place.

Sure time is a factor. And now I’m busier than ever, but these are the things that really make me happy. Like the deep down I’m content with my life happiness that comes from health and pleasure in the daily living of life. Sure getting published makes me feel super excited, having over 30,000 unique visitors to Craft Leftovers each month makes me feel cocky, but it’s the daily lifestyle choices that really make me feel good about myself. Strange isn’t it? I think that no matter how busy I get, I can afford the two hours a day to get back to that place.

I read this post over on the Simple Dollar called “What will you Learn this Year” and I would really like to apply this to the cello. Spending 30 minutes (at first) to 1 hour (in 3-6 months) and eventually 1 1/2 hours each day (6-12 months) practicing the cello. In theory I have naturally talent and “You are picking things up as quickly as my other beginning students and they practice and I know you don’t, if you would just practice even 3 times a week you would progress so quickly”. Well, let’s give it a running shot and see what happens in the next year. (I would do a two hour “crap I need to learn these scales” practice session the morning before my lesson, so bad!).

I did have a drawing to post today, but the pictures turned out blurry and I’ll have to retake them. Their just some fun little drawing/paintings of random little characters. I’ll post them later today.

I’ll see you then and hopefully more throughout the week. I’m planning to try some new recipes and I wanted to post the results of that as well as some more drawings.

Have a good Sunday afternoon!
Kristin

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