Flowers

One of the things that was important to me for the wedding was the flowers - I knew I could never afford to cover the entire place in flowers but I had some specific requirements for the bouquet. I wanted my bouquet to incorporate flowers that remind me of people in my life - irises are my favorite flowers and they remind me of my dad, daffodils remind me of my mother (my dad brought them to her every spring), red carnations are my maid of honor's favorite flower, calla lily's for the groom's mother, and roses because a lot of people said those or couldn't pick a flower (I picked peach because those are my favorite). However, as with everything wedding related, the price of the bouquets was more than I expected. I discovered I could make what I wanted myself for less.

Pear Pudding: Budino di Pera

Pear Pudding: Budino di Pera

In an effort to use up eggs, I thought I would try something a little outside my comfort range. I am not generally a fan of custard but I was intrigued. They are a little fussy to make. The only alteration I made was to crush some oatmeal to coat the sides of the ramekins with rather than bread crumbs which was a texture thing for me - I am not a fan of the taste of soggy bread.

Veggie Quiche

I have a ridiculous amount of eggs that needed to be used up and since we are going to a grill out tonight (and I hate coming empty handed) I thought I would make a quiche.

I am not a big fan of quiche actually so I don't know much about them. I also didn't want to buy a lot of extra ingredients so I looked online at different recipes and ratios and came up with this.

Favorite crust recipe of your choice
1 large onion
2 cups diced peppers
1 cup assorted mushrooms
minced garlic
8 eggs
2 cups milk
2 Tbsps mustard (I only had yellow but dijon would probably be better)
1 + cup of shredded cheddar cheese
2 Tbsps Parisian Herbe blend (dill, parsley, chive, and some other stuff)
seasoned salt
black pepper

1. Prepare, roll out, and spread your pie crust in the bottom of pie pan and bake in the oven at 425 degrees for about 15 minutes. Then reduce heat to 350 or 375.

2. Saute onions, garlic, and green peppers in either olive oil or butter until soft. Add mushrooms. Sprinkle with seasoned salt. Spread these in the pre-baked shell.

3. Whisk eggs, milk, mustard, and spices together until fluffy. Fold in cheese and pour over veggies. Bake in oven for about 40 minutes or until golden brown and set.


I think this actually makes about 2 quiches. I have both leftover veggies and goo. I tried to turn the egg goo into some sort of pan fried thing but the milk ratio just made it boil and get sort of lumpy. That was not a good idea. I think I am going to add tomatoes to the veggies though and make a pasta sauce for work this week.

Anyway, it looks tastey. I haven't tried it yet. We will see how it goes over tonight.

Crafty Updates

Not a lot has been going on in the crafting front. My flowers died about a week or so after posting those pictures so that was timely. Not really surprising but always disappointing.

I seem to have lost my steam with the craft projects. I think part of it is that I have a lot of knitting projects that require my attention so I can't knit when I usually do which is while I am watching a movie or something and I have been spending my Fridays with the boy rather than going to knit nights. I started working on the blanket of many colors again as that is something mindless that I can do while watching television. I am debating whether or not I just want to finish the present skein of yarn or add one more to it. It is really long but not very wide. It is endlessly pet-able though which was its original purpose.

However, after visiting my favorite knitting store yesterday while my mom was in town visiting (that place really is shangri-la to me) I was inspired to get my projects off their needles and cast on something new. So I finished the first of my slippers and started working on the last part before the toe decrease on the second of my bulky socks. I was also somewhat frustrated by the general lack of organization in my yarn stash so I went through all my stuff and updated my ravelry stash to reflect it. And I think I want to make some wrist warmers out of the beautiful yarn my mother bought me yesterday so I have to get other stuff done before I can start those. I also need to stop purchasing yarn and start using what I have to finish the projects currently in my cue - socks for the boy, more dishtowels, flower wash cloths, some more baby socks out of my leftover sock yarn for the multitude of newborns amongst my general acquaintances, etc. I really want to try the February Lady Sweater at some point and doing so means I need to get my other projects done.

I have also delayed the wedding planning entirely too long so I have been working on that a bit too. I am slowly gathering all the materials for my bouquets and I had the first meeting regarding menu planning. There is a lot to do but I think we can get it done. Oh and my fiance's vest - I MUST START WORKING ON THAT!!!

And as a fun bit of nonsense I picked up a couple kits below that I thought might be fun. I really enjoyed them and want to get the rest of the series. I think they will look really nice on my tree this year:

Birthday Swap

So this is somewhat late in posting but a couple of months ago I participated in a birthday swap with fellow Gemini's through Ravelry. A name was drawn for us of someone participating and we sent them a package with $X amount of stuff and then someone else would send us a package.

This was a lot of fun to compile especially since I am horrible at finding bargains usually and it really forced me to spend inside my budget. I even made some stitch markers but i am not sure they turned out very well. Anyway this was the pictures my partner took of the package I sent her:



(I couldn't resist sending a wind-up toy - I like sharing the madness!)

And this was the amazing package I got from my swap partner:


I can't wait to play with the undyed yarn - I am thinking indigo and tumeric and then making one of the Islamic pouches that were discussed in one of the recent SCA craft publications. *squee*

Flowers that Aren't Dead!

I am so excited. These flowers have been alive for a couple of weeks. I discovered the secret to not killing plants within the first 7 days (if you are me anyway) is that I should leave them completely and absolutely alone. The best gift I can give them is my absence. And they are so pretty that I am in no way shape or form offended. These photos were from a couple weeks ago but they are still alive (at least as of Saturday).

For those of you just tuning in, I have sort of a brown shriveled thumb and am always sort of disappointed by my eager if misplaced gardening efforts on our patio each spring. Last year I had a total of like 6 string beans and some woody mint. I decided to go with flowers (since I love them but can't justify buying them for myself to slowly die in a vase on my desk) and that I would just leave them alone. I think as we get towards the drier months of August I will have to intervene with an occassional watering but thus far *knocks on wood* I have living plants

Hooray! For those of you who like photos...Enjoy!

Viking Apron Dress

In an effort to extend my garb/tunics until I can manage to make more time period appropriate SCA garb for myself I decided to make myself a Viking Apron Dress.

I actually finished this about 2 weeks ago but I was waiting for my broaches to arrive from Raymond's Quiet Press before showing it off. My measurements were off in a few places but overall the dress worked out pretty well. The style was more flattering than I expected. I even got bold and embroidered with some wool twill thread. I apparently need a weave to follow to do anything more complex so it is just a simple chain stitch. Interestingly with all the embroidery I have done, I have never embroidered a garment I made. It actually got me excited about embroidery again and I have pulled out a bunch of old projects to finish.

I am hoping to make a head covering to go with the dress prior to WW but I don't think I will make an embroidered one until after the event. Currently, however I have been waylaid by a modern fun little project instead.