Winter, perhaps
Jan. 29th, 2013 10:03 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
tea_and_toastJanuary has been slipping by. I don't make resolutions; if anything I try not to add projects now. Normally I can start three new projects every day, but in January I try to finish something instead.
I went through several issues of Fine Cooking and cut out recipes. Among them I found a cinnamon swirl raisin bread, which was delicious:
The swirl showed up wonderfully when I toasted and buttered a slice, but if you think I'm going to take the time to grab my camera when there's warm handmade cinnamon toast to be had...
I worked on my quilt, but all my careful work - piecing a design into the backing, piecing the batting to be big enough, laying the whole thing out in a space not quite big enough and then pinning every few inches (did I mention it's for a queen size bed?) - seems to be for nothing. I managed one seam of quilting on it before I gave up. My Bernina is not up to the task of quilting a queen size quilt. Oh, let's be honest; I'm not up to it. The one seam was fine, really, but I could see the quilt wasn't pinned very taut and I'd have lots of bumps and wrinkles sewn in as I continued.
So I've taken the one seam back out. And there it sits, while I try to decide whether to give up and tie it instead of quilting, whether to repin the whole thing first before tying, or whether to call a stranger who has a longarm quilting machine and have them do it. And that's expensive. But I do prefer the look of longarm quilting. I love the front; I don't want to ruin it. No pictures yet.
So anyway, we had rain. And cold snaps. And days so bright and sunny it felt like June.
My mummy gave us a gift card to Harney and Sons, so naturally I had to ponder deeply which teas to buy:
So much tastiness! The only one I can't recommend so far is the Lapsang Souchong. It's supposed to taste like pine fires, campfires, cozy hearths on rainy nights... To me it tastes like liquid smoke, that chemical they add to cured meats so you think they've been smoked. Blech.
The blood orange and the Assam and the Irish Breakfast and the strawberry kiwi are all delightful, though. And the Paris, of course. We gave that one away at our wedding last year. :)
In other baking news, I made oatmeal bread, with a bit of whole wheat.
Of course I had to make toast with it:
And what would toast be without tea?
And then there were cupcakes for a birthday:
Yum!
The kitties are enjoying having the heater run so much. At least, they sit around with sleepy smiles.
Not to imply that it's not rather spring-like in the garden. The calendula never gave up:
And the happy wanderer has burst into purple blooms, all over:
Even the grass has grown in nicely:
But the trees know it's still January.
I went through several issues of Fine Cooking and cut out recipes. Among them I found a cinnamon swirl raisin bread, which was delicious:
The swirl showed up wonderfully when I toasted and buttered a slice, but if you think I'm going to take the time to grab my camera when there's warm handmade cinnamon toast to be had...
I worked on my quilt, but all my careful work - piecing a design into the backing, piecing the batting to be big enough, laying the whole thing out in a space not quite big enough and then pinning every few inches (did I mention it's for a queen size bed?) - seems to be for nothing. I managed one seam of quilting on it before I gave up. My Bernina is not up to the task of quilting a queen size quilt. Oh, let's be honest; I'm not up to it. The one seam was fine, really, but I could see the quilt wasn't pinned very taut and I'd have lots of bumps and wrinkles sewn in as I continued.
So I've taken the one seam back out. And there it sits, while I try to decide whether to give up and tie it instead of quilting, whether to repin the whole thing first before tying, or whether to call a stranger who has a longarm quilting machine and have them do it. And that's expensive. But I do prefer the look of longarm quilting. I love the front; I don't want to ruin it. No pictures yet.
So anyway, we had rain. And cold snaps. And days so bright and sunny it felt like June.
My mummy gave us a gift card to Harney and Sons, so naturally I had to ponder deeply which teas to buy:
So much tastiness! The only one I can't recommend so far is the Lapsang Souchong. It's supposed to taste like pine fires, campfires, cozy hearths on rainy nights... To me it tastes like liquid smoke, that chemical they add to cured meats so you think they've been smoked. Blech.
The blood orange and the Assam and the Irish Breakfast and the strawberry kiwi are all delightful, though. And the Paris, of course. We gave that one away at our wedding last year. :)
In other baking news, I made oatmeal bread, with a bit of whole wheat.
Of course I had to make toast with it:
And what would toast be without tea?
And then there were cupcakes for a birthday:
Yum!
The kitties are enjoying having the heater run so much. At least, they sit around with sleepy smiles.
Not to imply that it's not rather spring-like in the garden. The calendula never gave up:
And the happy wanderer has burst into purple blooms, all over:
Even the grass has grown in nicely:
But the trees know it's still January.