A Final Blogger Post.... But Wait, There's More

Now hold on just minute and keep your hat on!  I don't want you to have read that title and be all worried now.  I know you have become attached to me and my erratic ramblings and sarcasm, and the delicious photos I sometimes post of the amazing food I make ( which I have been told make some people want to eat their laptops but please don't do this because then you couldn't read my blog anymore and I would miss you ), but just because the title has the words 'final post' in it, does not mean that you are never going to hear from me again!

Let's look at the actual wording of this so that I may calm you down ( because I don't want you to be all stressed now ).  "Final Blogger Post".   Blogger post.  Do you know what that means?

*drum roll please*

I'M MOVING TO WORDPRESS!!!!

WHOOO!!!

Isn't that just exciting?!?!?!

Ok, so maybe it's not all that exciting on the surface, but let me explain to you why I'm so excited, and then maybe you will be, too.

This blog, right from the very start, has been a journal blog.  I wasn't actually sure what I was doing with it, and I had no clue where I wanted to go with it ( also if you look back to the very beginning I was horrid at actually posting more than once a month but shhh maybe you shouldn't look back that far ).

This blog isn't even that old.  I've been blogging for less than a year now, and have a meager 51 posts previous to this one because of the 873421 things that I have to do in my life ( alright that number is an exaggeration but it certainly feels like that many things sometimes ).  But in that time, I have gotten an idea of what I want to do with my blogging, and this, my friends is the reason I am moving to Wordpress.

I have always, always had a deep love for books.  This may sound silly, but for me, books are just about the number 1 thing in my life, right next to my beloved peanut butter, of course.  I started reading on my own when I was 4.  I always asked for books over toys when people wanted to get me something.  Heck, I bought 41 books in May just because I loved them for being books.  Do you remember that?  That was crazy!  But I'm so glad I did.

I love the way books look.  I love the way books smell.  I love the way the paper feels and sounds when you turn it.  And that's to say nothing of the stories that are actually inside the books.  Reading just makes me feel better.  Doesn't matter how I feel.  Sad?  I go read.  Angry?  I go read.  Stressed?  Hey, this book looks good.  Happy?  Why not feel even happier by reading a book?

The point is, books are amazing and I love them.  So wouldn't it make sense to have a book blog?

I think it makes sense, not only because I love books so much but because I am working to be a self-published author.  I have often found myself searching for something to blog about, but now, with books being my main focus, I'll never run out of things to say.

So I'm moving on to Wordpress, where I may put my posts into more organized categories.  Because while books and writing and all things to do with paper and words is going to be my main focus, I'm sure you still want a tiny bit of journaling, right?  Because you do want to hear about my adventures and see my doodles and my ridiculous antics ( along with the photos that come with them, such as the photo of me and my sister gracefully journeying through a sprinkler ), and who am I to disappoint you by omitting these posts entirely?

I would hate to see you sad, so I won't do that.  I will, though, hope that you hop over to my new blog here, and continue to skip through life with me.  So you see, there's no need to worry, despite the title of this post.  I'm still here for you!  And those 51 old posts of mine?  They are still there on my Wordpress blog, too!  So you can go back and laugh at any of my old shenanigans when ever you feel like it.

So, if you are reading this and are a current follower of mine, hop on over to my new blog and follow it!  There will be no more posts on this blog, so after you follow my new blog, don't worry about this old thing anymore.

If you are reading this and are not currently a beloved groupie of mine, then come on it and join the fun!  I would love to have you, and over time, you can't help but love me too, I think, so really there's no downside to being with me.

Also, I have a Bookstagram now.  How cool is that?!?!!  It's the coolest, but I don't know maybe that's just my opinion or something.  I never would have even thought to have a Bookstagram if it hadn't been for the radical idea of moving to Wordpress.  So you see, good things are already happening because of "The Move" and I haven't really even started yet.  Good omens, if you believe in them.

*just to make sure you got it, this is my new site*  :)
https://yarnsfromelsewhere.wordpress.com

I guess that means this it.  The final sign-off on Blogger.  Am I filled with emotions upon writing it?  Yes.  Emotions of EXCITEMENT.  Alright, I'd better wrap things up now, or else it may never end ( it's already pretty long as it is (I think this may be the wordiest post I've ever written but oh well) ).  On to new bookish posts, bookish photos, and other bookish things, with a little bit of life still sprinkled in ( and sarcasm, always sarcasm ).

Em  :)

What?!  No photos?!  I know, I surprise myself too.

Saturday Brunch

What happens when you sleep in till 10 in the morning after staying up till midnight playing Fallout: New Vegas and then wake up and decide, "You know what, I feel eating pancakes." ?  Well turns out, you get your lazy butt up and make pancakes.

I have to confess, this is the first time I have slept in past 9 in the morning in years.  Years, I tell you.  Why?  I'm not sure, I just don't like sleeping in all that much.  It bothers me somehow, like I'm wasting my day or something.  ( Which doesn't make a lot of sense because I'm down for taking naps in the middle of the day any time you ask but if I made sense I wouldn't be me, would I? )  So I was actually super surprised that I felt lazy enough to sleep in that late.  But when I did finally get up, my tastebuds wanted pancakes.

I struggled a bit making these pancakes, not because they're hard to make or because I'm capable of burning water* ( I actually make a mean baked potato soup with home made rue and all the works so A+ kitchen skills for me ), but because my blood sugar was low.  Very low.  I get lightheaded very easily if I don't eat enough, so after not having eaten since dinner the evening before ( that's what, 18 hours or so without food? ) I was in need of those pancakes.

*I have never actually burned water, just want to put that out there.  Not that you can, but still.

I piled myself some of those bad boys up in a bowl with blueberries and honey and boy, where they good.  It was about 11:30 or so by the time I finally took a bite, after mixing and cooking and cleaning up after myself ( because you do not want to leave a dirty kitchen for your mother to clean up ( not because she's threatened to tie a pork chop around your neck and leave you in the foothills for the coyotes to eat or anything, but because you're a nice person who wants to help your mother out** ) ), and also after taking a couple of pictures just for you, yes that's right, wonderful you, who is so special and who I appreciate so much for being here with me reading this ( I truly do ).

**Or both.  Both is a possibility.

They tasted as good they look.  Maybe even better.  It was a milk free, egg free recipe ( though I did use extra butter ), so my mother could eat them without feeling bad afterward.  It was good start to a great lazy day, and later in the evening, the extra pancakes had fried chicken piled on top of them for a great breakfast-y dinner.  Yum.

Now I'm off to drink even more caffeine then I did this morning, because it's going to be another late night.  The Rhythmic Gymnastics All Around Individual Finals comes on here in my area at 23:30, and won't end until 0:30.  Then, at 9 tomorrow morning the group finals will be on, and I don't want to miss either of them.  Olympics over sleep is what I say.  They only come every four years, so might as well watch all you can, right?

Let's go USA!!!!!  WHOOO!!!!!

Em

Orange Tinted Smoke

There is a huge wildfire burning near the area I live, and the gray smoke coming from it is not only a reminder of the danger that comes to my area each summer with the wildfires, but is also the creator of some fairly strange looking mornings and evenings.

Unlike a cloudy day, where the thick, gray clouds will block out the sun for a muted day where colors can pop against the cool background, the voluminous smoke creates a film for the sun to filter through.  This, aside from being a health hazard, gives us fire-light scattered across every object in sight.

The sun turns red, the blue morning sky is hidden behind the smoke.  We wake to find our quilts and walls and floors bright orange, an orange so bright, in fact, that the camera can't pick up on it properly to show you how vivid it really is.  Outside everything looks oversaturated, and you can hold your hand up in some spots to see beams of light shinning through the smoke, much like you would see the light shinning through thick clouds of dust in an old room.

It really is sort of pretty, but the destruction of the fire is not worth the nice colors it creates.  Houses have been lost, roads shut down, people evacuated from their homes.  The amount of smoke in the air is, as I mentioned before, a health hazard.  Despite the nice summer temperatures, we can't have our windows open, least the smoke fills our house, too.  It makes for summer days spent inside, instead out enjoying the sun like we might be otherwise.

The mornings are orange, and the days a pale yellow with bright gray tinted skies.  But the evenings have purple in their skies.  Gray tinted yellows, teals, and sometimes even greens accompany the dusty purples when the red sun sets.  These sunsets will have to be left to your imagination, though, because the camera sensors fail me once again in not being able to pick up on what the colors really look like.

Despite the color show it gives us, I hope the fire is put out soon.  Even after it is, the smoke may hang around for a while after it, but perhaps we might still get to spend our last few summer days outside, like we should be.  More importantly, let's hope no more houses are lost before it finally burns out and leaves us.

Em

Checkmate

From my library's corner sale I acquired my very own chess set.  It was only a dollar, so I thought, why not pick it up?  I am now on the slow but steady path to learning how to play chess properly.  On this journey with me is my little sister.  We decided that we would learn to become masters of chess together.

My chess set is a plastic one, molded in the 'authentic Staunton design', according to the side of the box.  You can tell just from looking at the box that this is an older set.  The yellowed tape, the style of the type, the discoloration of the box.  Upon inspection of one side of the box I found a date; 1969.  It may not be as pretty as some of the chess sets in the book my sister and I are using for instruction, but it does have some sort of charm to it.  I'm certainly glad I have it, and that it simply wasn't tossed into a dumpster somewhere.

The book we are reading from is "Chess move by move" by Paul Langfield.  It was written in 1968, just a year before my chess set was made.  I think that makes my chess set and it a pretty good pair, don't you?  I was amused to see the fictional quote it has printed on it's copyright page.

'I declare it's marked out just like a large chess board!' Alice said as last . . . 'It's a great huge game of chess that's being played–all over the world . . . I wouldn't mind being a Pawn, if only I might join–though of course I should like to be a Queen, best.'

THROUGH THE LOOKING–GLASS

Lewis Carroll 

I thought it was a fitting quote to add in there.

We've gotten through the first chapter, which explains to us how to properly set the game up.  The two things I have learned from it are a) the bottom right-hand corner of the board must always be a while square for each player, and b) the white queen goes on a white square and the black queen goes on a black square, always.  The idea that the king should always go on your right-hand side and the queen on your left is wrong.  This puts the king and the queen diagonal from each other across the chess board, and doesn't create the king's side and the queen's side of the board like it should.

When the queens are set up properly, a grid is created, as shown above.  This is especially important if you are recording the game in ledger or some other thing.

We haven't gotten to any of the actual moves yet, so we might not be able to out wit you as of this moment, but so far my sister and I can at least keep your board straight and even record the match properly if you so wanted us to.

There are many varied and unique chess sets pictured inside our book.  It almost makes me want to go out and start collecting them, just for the looks of it.  But if I started collecting anything else, I'd end up on an episode of Extreme Hoarders one day.  That's what I'm told, anyways.  Though, arguably, is it really hoarding if all the stuff is really cool stuff?  I don't think so.  Still, I am living on limited space at the moment, and limited cash, so there will be no old chess set collecting for now.

For now.

By the end of this book I will be a chess master ( probably ), and so will my sister ( maybe ).  Either way, we're going to have fun with it, and that's all that will matter when the covers are closed.

Em

A Yarny Recap: Where I Went & What I Did

Now where on Earth did I go for just over two weeks?  Somewhere without internet connection or the ability to socialize, apparently.  Ok, so that's not entirely true.  I actually stayed right where I'm sitting as I type this, at my desk, in my room, drinking tea and over caffeinating ( as usual ).  I may have also been consuming copious amounts of peanut butter.   Can neither confirm nor deny.

But I'm back now, and here to give you the recap of the past two weeks or so.  Let's a make a bullet list.  Yes, I think a bullet list will do nicely.

• I finished my Egypt mythology book!!!  Yes, isn't it exciting!  I even wrote an essay on it, albeit a very confused one because I was trying to cram all of the things I found interesting into a tiny little essay without turning it into a 500 page thesis or something.  Here's the opening paragraph.

"The waters of the Ancient Egyptian mind are murky and uncertain regions to traverse.  Even in today’s world of the internet and seemingly endless knowledge where we think we know it all, much of the Ancient Egyptian world and it’s thoughts still remain shrouded behind the curtain of the Nile, lost deep within it’s dark waters and muddied banks.  Plunderers, grave robbers, and even the Egyptian people themselves caused damaged that has lead to a deficit in our understanding of their ancient world.  But the biggest culprit?  Time.  It is the age of Egypt that bars our way most strongly, that has caused much of it’s old world to be, almost literally, lost to the sands of time."

Intriguing, yes?  Makes you want to read the whole essay, doesn't it?  Well trust me, you don't.  But please, continue to think that I am a master of the essay.  Some lies are ok to believe ( but only the little ones I give you, ok?   Don't go believing everything everybody tells you, because they don't have your best interests at heart like I do. ).

Back to the bullet list.

• My next culture to study?  The Irish!!!  I have to tell you that I'm super excited about this one too, possibly even more excited then I was about Egypt.  Though I am a little concerned about the size of this Irish book.  It's over 600 pages long.  Mildly concerned that it might crush me by accident.

• On the subject of books, I finished "A Gathering of Shadows" and I loved it!!!

• Oh, and "The Bell Jar"?  It was definitely one heck of a book.  I can't say too much without running the story for you ( and I HATE that ), so just go read it.  Like, right about now.

• I have a new plant.  What does this mean, you wonder?  Well my Johny-Jump-Up died, sadly.  The one I had sitting in a little glass container on my windowsill.  It was't going to last forever, and after it seeded, it was gone.  But I have now planted some of my very own bachelor's buttons in the glass container, and they are doing great!  I am questioning that decision now though, because they are a tall plant.  A very tall plant.  In a little container.  On my windowsill.  But we'll cross that bridge when we get there.

• I drew this little guy!  How cute is he?!  I just love him.  My little bitty ghost, looking a bit unsure of things, probably slightly concerned with the sanity of the person who drew him ( at least I would be, if I were him, and, you know, if he were actually alive but shhh ).

• Oh and this.  I drew this.  I'm just gonna' leave it right there.

• Yoga has become a regular ( -ish ) part of my weeks and it has done me a ton of good.  I basically do hours of walking and lifting heavy things where I work and I have to admit that I am a small person, so this does not exactly make my little back feel good.  But yoga does.  It also helps me relax, because I get kind of stressed about time a lot.  Turns out, I'm not actually as flexible as I thought I was!  But that's getting better too.  I haven't managed to rip anything important yet so I'm counting that as a win.

• I have also a) been continuing with my editing b) been super busy with school and work and responsibility ( ick ) which is the main reason I disappeared into the unknowable void that is my room and c) been working on starting a new book focused blog but never fear!  I have plans to move to Wordpress ( shhh, don't tell Google ) and I believe I can have multiple sections, so to speak, under one blag name, which means the main part of my blog will be for books, and on the side I can still do some journal blogging just like I do here.  I'll keep you posted on this. Like, literally posted.  Because that's what these are, you know.  Blog posts.  Anyways.

So now I'm back ( for now ) and I will stay back ( for now ) so don't worry!  You don't have to miss me anymore!  I certainly missed all of you and missed writing a blog post or two here and there but boy, was I super busy ( also, I might have spent some time just lying on my bed stressing about how busy I was but you know ).  I think I have my act together now ( at least slightly more together then it was before ) so all there is to do is continue pressing forward!

Em

Falling in Drafts Again

Let's pretend that it's fall for a moment ( which I'm sure we all wish it was, to get away from the baking heat of the summer sun ).  Smell the turning leaves, feel the crisp air on your skin, and look at all the fall drafts I finished.

Yes, this is the reason I want you to come frolicking through the leaves with me.  I don't want pumpkin pie or a leaf pile; I want to celebrate having finished all seven of the children's short stories I have set in the fall season.

Hopefully I was able to put you in the fall mood even though it's summer.  It's kind of a tricky thing to do when it's out of season, but I had my handy dandy drawer of pressed leaves and some other dried flowers and drift wood to help me set the tone.

Now wether or not these photos look even remotely fall-ish to you ( if they don't please give me some slack and remember that it is actually summer right now ) isn't the point of this post.  We're here to celebrate, people!  Do you remember the editing slump I was in?  And I mean severe editing slump?  Well boy oh boy am I coming out of it now.  I have my summer and my fall first drafts done now.  Winter and spring are both half done.  I'm so close now to having all 28 of my stories edited.

When I finished my summer drafts I suggested we celebrate together with ice-cream.  This time, let's go with pie.  Apple pie, peach pie, blueberry pie, whatever kind of pie.  Just pie.  It really does't matter, because honestly, if it's pie, how can it be bad?  It goes so well with fall, too.  Though if you want to go back to the ice-cream and sneak a scoop of vanilla on top of your slice, then that's fine with me.  I won't tell anyone.

Em

Inky Tangles

I've been doing quite a bit more Zentangle here lately then I ever have before ( that's not to say I'm doing a lot a lot of it, but just a lot for me ).  This is because I have made it a part of my new schedule to do one new tangle a week.  This gives me a solid reason to set time aside specifically for my doodling, which I love, and it gives me plenty of time to spread out the hours it takes to make one tangle throughout the week.

I thought I'd just show the ones I've done since my first tangle of this year that I showed you here.

And there they all are.  Like I said, it's not much, and it's not all that professional or clean looking, but I'm very happy with them myself.  I really enjoy making these tangles, and I'm glad I made the decision to make it apart of my life on a regular basis, because it is something that relaxes and de-stresses me as well as makes me smile.

With practice I'm sure my hand will grow better, and my ink strokes will become more uniform and clean.  I'm sure the practice holding and working with the pens will help my hands when I finish editing my 28 children's short stories and I go to start doodling little animals to decorate their pages.

Em

Hot Air Balloon Blanket Completed

I would just like to shout a bit and share the fact that I have now finished my hot air balloon blanket.  Which blanket might this be?  Why, it's this one, of course.  The one that's made up of 285 individual rectangles.

I finished it this afternoon and I am so pleased with how it turned out.  Above are some photos showing how I put all those separate rectangles together.  I had to crochet ( yes, crochet, this is not knit ) all the columns together first, and then go back in the other direction and close the gaps by crocheting the rows together.  I could have done it the other way around, too.  It doesn't matter which direction you go in first, just that you have to do all of one direction and then do all of the second direction.

Not really sure what I'm talking about here?

That's ok, you don't have to.  I don't expect everyone, or even most of everyone who reads this know all the technical crochet stuff I throw in here from time to time.  What you should be doing though ( or least what I hope you're doing ), is shouting along with me at the fact that I finally got here.  At the very least I hope you're excitedly clapping your hands or something.

From beginning to end this project took me about two and a half months.  All to make a 48" by 56" blanket.  Yes, those are some slightly strange measurements, but it's what it turned out to be in order for me to get the design I wanted.  This is one more blanket towards the goal of getting an online blanket shop open, so it really is a big deal for me to have finished it.

I am now going to go and eat some ice-cream to celebrate.  You should too, to celebrate with me!  Don't feel like celebrating all that much tonight?  That's fine, don't worry about it.  I still give you full permission to use this post as an excuse to eat ice-cream, though, because really, ice-cream in the summer is just a fundamental part of life.

Em

My Favorite Book?

So I took this silly little internet quiz just the other day saying that it could guess what my favorite book is.  Normally I ignore these sorts of things, but I was bored, had nothing better to do, and it was really the only thing left on my Pinterest feed that I hadn't looked at yet.  So I took it.

The result I got was a book that I had never actually heard of before.  "The Bell Jar" by Sylvia Plath.  I was intrigued.  How was it that I had never heard of this book before, yet the quiz said it was my favorite book?

( Now the obvious answer to this is the fact that it is a silly little internet quiz that doesn't know me at all and has only a limited number of books to chose from based off of the choices of whoever made the quiz, and all paths are predetermined by the small number of questions there are, of which were also chosen by the person who made the quiz, who we can assume is not in fact a psychologist or a master at 20 Questions. )

I decided to check the book out from my library and read it for myself, to see if it really did turn out to be my Favorite book, or at least one of my favorite books.  I have lots of favorites, you see, but there is only one Favorite.

Now you'll have to wait to find out if it ends up being one of my favorite books, because I haven't actually started reading it yet.   I know, I know, but you can't be too mad at me.  I was busy reading my first Egypt book ( which I've finished now ) for my myths and legends study, and I had some important catching up to do on "A Darker Shade of Magic" by V. E. Schwab that I sadly had not gotten around to reading yet until this week, even though it's been out for over a year ( don't worry, I won't take so long to read the second one ).

Sylvia Plath, though, is a name that I have heard before, even if I've never read any of her work.  She was a poet in the 1900's, who tragically committed suicide in 1963 at the age of 30.  After divorcing her husband and moving to London with her two children, she had some issues getting this book published.  But it finally was, just a few weeks before her death, under the pseudonym Victoria Lucas, though everyone in London knew she was the real author.

"The Bell Jar" is an American classic about a woman descending into a mental breakdown, and I can't wait to read it.  There's something about mental health stories that I can't seem to get enough of.  Sylvia's story makes me want to read it even more, because of how the plot of the story ( at first glance ) appears to be an insight as to what happened to her, in her mind.  It is said that her first suicide attempt is chronicled in the summer mentioned in this book.

So now I read, and maybe you will, too.  I think it's important, in a way, to try to understand what it's like for people who are hurt in this way, so that maybe one day there will be a better chance of helping them to save themselves.

Em

After the Drafts of Summer Are Gone

It is no easy, or particularly fun task to self-edit your own writing.  It's that first time you look at all the sand you shoved in the sandbox and realize that now you actually have to make something with it.  With this mess.  A beautiful mess, for sure, but still a mess.

I may or may not have mentioned it before, but I am currently in the process of working toward self-publishing a collecting of 28 children's short stories for you and the rest of the world love and devour ( because you will, of course, finger crossed ).  I have done 7 stories for each of the four seasons, and now all 28 of those rough drafts are staring at me, judgmentally, almost, waiting for me to stop procrastinating with everything else I don't really need to be doing and turn them into 1st drafts.

I got a whole boat load of writing done in March, then took a month off from writing to give my eyes a break from staring at these stories, and then I had planned to do all the rough draft editing in May.  Easy peasy, right?

Well now it's July and I'm just over half way through them all.  They're still staring at me, and I've begun to stare back, or just ignore them all for as long as possible.  But this method isn't going to get me published by summer next year.  Especially since I have do all my own illustrations, too, and I haven't even begun with that task yet ( I'm not actually good a drawing, you see ).

I am happy to say though that I am staring to get out of this editing slump and get some real work done.  I have all the first drafts for the first season, Summer, done and filed away for me to work into my files on my computer once I finish the other seasons.  Fall is nearly done, and all Spring really needs is some expanding.  Winter is going to be the most challenging.  I have found that at least 2 of my winter stories are no longer to my liking.  

That's going to take me some extra time, having to come up with 2 new stories before I can even start editing them, and I'm not sure how much winter inspiration I can find in the middle of summer.  Perhaps I'll just have to finish all the other drafts, then work on my drawings for a while, till winter comes back around and I can write those winter stories that I need.

I'm just going to celebrate the completed Summer first drafts for now and try not to glare at myself for all the procrastination that I did over the past two months.  The drafts of summer are gone, and it's time to keep moving forward toward the end of my goal.

Em

Myths and Legends: a Study

Ok, so I've been a bit off my game this past week.  You might not have noticed this from the other two posts that I did on Sunday and Thursday, but guess what?  That's because I  didn't actually write them this week.  I know, can you believe it?  I wrote them last Saturday, and then set them to post this week.  Perhaps I should not be giving this secret out, but I tend to break all the rules anyways so oh well.

On Monday I actually woke up thinking that it was Thursday for some reason.  I almost walked out of the house before 8 in the morning thinking I had to be somewhere when really I didn't because it was not in fact Thursday yet.  I spent one super late night this week being almost overwhelmed by a somewhat threatening swarm of small children soaking me with plastic fish for three hours.  Just this afternoon I randomly started drinking from a molasses bottle because I wanted to see what it tasted like instead of just maybe dipping my pinky or something in it like a normal person would ( it was super sweet and kind of sickly tasting all by itself, if you were wondering ).

So yeah, just a bit off my game.

But amongst all this off-ness there has been one thing that I've been enjoying immensely.

My study of myths and legends from around the world.

I have taken it upon myself to do a nine month study of nine different cultures that I chose for myself based on how curious I am about them.  They are Rome, India, Japan, Iceland, Egypt, Russia, England, the Celts, and the Vikings.  How exciting does this sound?!

It's not anything professional or a collage course or something.  It's just me being curious and wanting to know more about the old stories that have always fascinated me.  I spent a few months collecting books from used book stores and even antique stores that contained collections of myths from the cultures and peoples I wanted to learn about.  I also picked up at least one history book on each of the cultures as well, because the more I thought I about it, the more I wanted to learn about the people who actually came up with these stories as well as the stories themselves.

So now I shall read.  And read, and read.  I take notes, mark pages with stickies ( but never dog ear ), compare information, etc., and when I've finished with one culture, I'm going to take the opportunity to practice writing reports and essays ( just for me ) on the information I have found for myself.

I gotta tell you, I am so super excited for this.

You might be thinking, "Ehh, what a nerd.", but hey!  At least I'm a happy one!  Or perhaps you are reading this and are now thinking, "Hey, that sounds like fun.  I am suddenly inspired to learn more about something I love, too!!!"  If that's the case, then go you!  You definitely should go do some learning, because guess what?  You are actually never too old to learn something new.  And who said you can't teach yourself?  I mean really, the only teachers I've ever had are my parents and myself, and look how great I turned out.  I have my life so together.

( You might wanna ignore paragraphs 1-3 and then that last statement will be much easier to believe. )

I'm studying Egypt right now, staring with the myths before the history book.  One thing that I'm realizing though is that there is actually a lot of history you find inside the myths that people used to tell.  How they thought, how they acted, what rituals were present in their day to day life because of these beliefs that they had.  It's all been very fascinating to read, and I only starting doing this last week.  I still have nine more months of all this wonderful learning to go.  It's just, well, wonderful!

Now I know this going to be consuming quite a good bit of my free time, but don't worry!  I will not stop posting on my blog, because I know that you would just be absolutely devastated if I didn't post a few times a week.  I will not neglect you.  You don't have to miss me any more than you already do on the those few days when I don't post already.

So here is to reading, learning, and being self-taught.  May these three things never be stopped!

Em

( Oh and here are the molasses cookies my mom made with the very same molasses I was drinking earlier.  They taste great. )

SaveSaveSaveSave

285 Rectangles

How many rectangles does it take to make a blanket?

In this case, it's 285 of them.  In 7 different colors, mind you.

I started making these rectangles back at the end of May, if you remember that late night post, and the terrible ( awesome ) joke about body parts ( you might want to go read the post just for that strange joke ).

It's no surprise it took me just over a month to make all these little rectangles.  I had to experiment with the stitches first to get them to be the size I needed, and then I only had time to work on them in the evenings while watching TV a few times a week.  I do enjoy working with yarn though, whether it be crochet or knitting, so all the time it took seems well worth it to me.

The inspiration for this blanket came from one of the many hot air balloons that you can see floating about in the skies during the spring and fall months.  There's this one that has colored rectangles arranged in a diamond shape against a black background.  They all sort of look like they're radiating out from each other as the colors stack and make diamond-shaped rings.  I didn't want the black, though, so I replaced it with gray ( which I love ).  And I upped the number of colors.  The hot air balloon only has 4; I went with 6 ( aside from the gray ).

I have this issue, you see, that even though purple and mint green are my favorite colors ( in that order, just in case you ever want to buy me a gift ), I love color in general, so that when it comes to making blankets, I have a hard time deciding which colors to use.

So I end up using all of them.  Or at least most.

I have never used less than 3 colors on a single blanket.  And even then the number of colors was so small only because a friend of mine picked them out for me.  Had I been left the task of choosing the colors all by myself, it probably would have been some mix of all the colors again.

Now comes the part where I have to stitch all 285 of these little rectangles together.  Thankfully I had the sense enough to weave in all the loose ends as I made the rectangles, so I've spared myself the pain of having to weave in all 570 of them at once ( that's 2 loose ends or 'tails' per rectangle ).  There's probably an easier way to make blankets that doesn't involve having to make hundreds of separate pieces and then sewing them together, but what the heck?  Nothing great is ever easy, right?

Em

Summer Garden

Carrots and asparagus, tomatoes, lettuce, and peppers.  Herbs and onions, strawberries and rhubarb.  Lots of green sprouts and ferns nestled happily in our garden beds, growing away, getting bigger, while we wait for the right time to pull them out and enjoy them.

By no means has my garden ever been big enough to actually replace the need to go to the grocery store for a certain item, but still, there is something nice about seeing it all grow, even when half of it doesn't grow right and you don't really get anything from it.  The strawberries, for instance, haven't given a single berry yet.  They seem far more concerned with growing runners to root more plants then they are with giving me berries.  World domination is clearly more important than jam to them.

On the other hand, some plants take off.  There are two giant rhubarb plants sitting at the beginning of the garden that are over 6 years old.  I can get 3 harvests from them in a single year.  The growing season here isn't a very long one, either, so this makes that fact even more amazing.  Similarly, there is a potted chive that I just can't seem to kill.   Usually I'm very good at killing plants.  But this chive is stubborn.  It keeps coming back in it's pot each year without any help or encouragement, and despite how many times I forget to water it, it just doesn't die.

I'm very proud of my chive.

Getting out in the dirt is something that just makes me feel good anyways, regardless of wether or not the plants end up being useful or not.  Still, there is something about my small garden that does seem a bit, well.... small.

I almost think it would be better to grow an herb garden.  Something that perhaps you could keep inside your house and use all year long.  Or, for the outside garden, to just pick one plant you really love, and I mean really, really love, and just fill all the garden beds with that single plant.  That way you could eliminate the need to buy that particular produce from the store.  It just seems like it, the garden, would be a bit more useful that way, like there would be more of a reason to grow it, instead of planting handfuls of a ton of plants that don't really grow anyways.

It does make me a bit disappointed that my garden isn't exactly as useful as maybe I would like it to be.  But, I must remember that it isn't really my garden, either.  It's our garden, my family's garden, and we all have our plants we love and would like to grow.  We have to share and help each other, just a family should.  So really, in that respect, I can be very proud of my garden, of our little garden.

It may be little, but it certainly is very green, and varied.  As much I would like to strive for a more 'useful' garden in the future, I can be happy with what we have now.  There is a very summery feel to it.  You can't deny that.  The rhubarb and the chives continue to flourish, and so perhaps the rest of the little experiment plants don't need to be quite so fruitful as they need to be there just make the gardener smile.

Over all, I love going out water it in the summer evenings when it's cooled down a bit, checking to see if the plants have gotten any bigger, going barefoot in the dirt, and sometimes just sitting there in middle of it imagining what it would be like if we just had a little more room for things to grow.  It's very good starting place, our garden.  A very good little place, in the middle of it all, to sit and just be happy to look at the life that you grew.

Not everything in life really needs to be 'useful', I think.  Somethings just need to be there, for no other reason than to make you smile at life.  That's what our little garden is for me.

Em

Southern Belles: Recipe

Remember when I teased you about when I was going to give you this recipe?  Well here it finally is!

Some of you reading this might remember when I first made these cookies from an old recipe I found in a magazine; well here is my modified version to share with you.

The name sounds so fancy, yet they aren't hard to make.  Some precise measuring, time, and an 8 by 11 inch pan is all it takes.  You don't have to be a baking guru to get these right.

The Ingredients:

• 3 Tbs. butter
• 1 cup of sugar
• 2 eggs ( save one egg white for sugar topping )
• 1 1/2 cups of flour
• 1 tsp. baking powder
• 1/2 salt
• 2 Tbs. heavy whipping cream
• 1/2 tsp. lemon juice
• 1/2 tsp. vanilla

For the Sugar Topping:

• 1 egg white, beaten
• 1/2 white sugar
• 1/4 brown sugar
• pinch of cream of tartar
• 2/3 cup shredded coconut

We're going to mix the cookie dough first, pre-bake it a bit, then put the topping on, well, top of it and finish baking the whole thing.

( I wish to apologize in advance for the horrible lighting in my kitchen. Please bare with me, the cookies will be worth it in the end, I promise. )

Preheat you're oven to 325 degrees ( fahrenheit ).

It starts out just like any other cookie recipe, by blending the butter and sugar together.  It'll be a sandy looking, because of how little butter there is compared to how much sugar there is.  Just make sure that there aren't any big clumps of butter hanging out in your mixer.

Put your eggs in next, saving one of the egg whites for later.  I find the best way to do this is to crack the egg into your hand and let the white slide through your fingers.  Mix till smooth.

The flour, baking soda, and salt get sifted right into your mixer bowl...

...and the heavy whipping cream, lemon juice, and vanilla get splashed right on top of that airy pile when you're done sifting.  All these things get mixed in at once, till it all comes together into a nice looking dough.

Time to get this dough into the pan.

I use an 8 by 11 inch pan to get my desired thickness.  The dough will spread out to about 1/4 of an inch thick.  Make sure you spray the pan so that the cookie doesn't stick!  Use a spatula for the spreading, wetting the back of it every few spreads to keep the dough from sticking to it.  Make it as uniform as you can.  You don't want one end to be much thicker than the other, or else it'll bake a bit funny.

When you're satisfied with your spreading, pop it into the oven for 15 minutes.

While it's baking, it's time to mix up that sugar topping.



Toss the egg white, white sugar, brown sugar, and the cream of tartar into the mixing bowl and beat it on high.  Please note: this is not a meringue.  But the egg white will expand a bit to give you more topping.  Continue beating it for about three minutes.  You should have a nice, smooth, sugary mixture in your bowl.



Dump your coconut in and mix on high for another 2 minutes.



The topping should look something like this when it's done.

And now we wait for the cookie in the oven to be done baking.

When you do finally take it out of the oven, let it cool for 5 minutes before you put the topping onto it.





The topping doesn't need to spread, and I wouldn't recommending trying to anyways because you'll end up ripping your cookie ( not that I ever did that, of course ).  It's one of those nice, crumbly toppings that you can just sprinkle on the top of whatever you're baking.  So sprinkle away, creating an even layer all across the top of your cookie.

Then it's back in the oven for another 15 minutes.



When it's finally done baking, let it cool completely before cutting and eating.  If it's still warm it'll wanna rip coming out of the pan.  The best way to cut it, I think, is in squares, and small ( -ish ) ones at that.  It's a very rich cookie, crunchy on the top, and chewy underneath.



I bet you'll feel super fancy after making these.  They've got a fancy name and they look like the perfect victorian tea party treat when they're all cut into neat little squares and arranged on a little plate.  I mean really, how could you not feel fancy after all that?  I, for one, feel the need to find a pretty white parasol to walk with after eating just one square.

You'll be hooked on these cookies as soon as you take you're first bite, I guaranty it.  Just make sure you have people to share them with, though, because I would really hate to see you fall into a sugar coma after eating the whole pan by yourself.

Any questions?  Let me know in the comments below!  I would love to hear to from you, and please, do tell if you feel fancy after making them like I do!

Em  :)