Currently creating - 25th February

Wow - how did it get to the 25th of February already!

So - my weekly contribution to the Champagne and Socks virtual craft circle - this time with actual photos!

This week I intend to finally send the finished Elphieblanket on its way.  I really love the yarn I used for this one - Patons Rainbow in "Rainforest".  I bought some more of it while it was on sale, in a different colourway - I'll have to find an appropriate project for that.

On the Jabyblanket, I've so far kept to my intention to complete at least one repeat of the pattern per day, and I'm up to 19 of 27.

Our cat Bard insisted on being included in my photo of progress so far.

In other types of creativity - after many tries, and *just* before they officially discontinued the set (damn you, LEGO), we finally got our hands on the Research Institute set - this being the three female scientists set that was voted for by the public and was made in such ludicrously low numbers for such things... but anyway...

We finally got our Research Institute and had great fun building it.  Have a LEGO dinosaur.

Currently Creating - 19 February 2015

A friend of mine mentioned that she was going to be working on crochet as part of her Lenten practice this year.

I also began listening to Alisa Krasnostein's new podcast, Champagne and Socks, in which she mentions that she needs to create something every day.

These two things have motivated me to set myself a daily crochet goal: at least one pattern repeat (four rows) of the Jabyblanket, or one colour (two long, long rows) of the Ripple Blanket.

The Jabyblanket is the same pattern that I previously used for the Elphieblanket, but with a higher ply yarn and larger hook.  I loved working on the Elphieblanket, but it was really far too small.

That's not going to be the problem with this one.

Bento: Week 2

See, I promised I would cut back on the the bento posts, so here are the bentos I've done for us this week (and a bit).

1.  rice, mini-burgers, asparagus with sesame sauce, brocolli, forgotten vegetable kinpira, spinach. 

(Clockwise from top left)
2. rice, smoked salmon, roast chicken, rocket, kinpira
3. A breakfast bento: congee, topped with smoked salmon, shredded carrot, pepitas, sesame sauce, walnuts
4.  chicken in pesto, tortellini salad without the tortellini, rocket, carrot in ginger, cherry tomatoes
5.  chicken in pesto sauce, kinpira, carrot in ginger, rice, red capsicum, rocket.

Bento 2

I promise it's not going to become all-bento all the time around here: I'll settle into a once-a-week post soon, I hope (as much as I settle into anything?)

As for today's bento:

• rice (sushi rice today, as the basmati yesterday just did not work with hashi (chopsticks).  Not that today's bento is a hashi one, but still).
• red capsicum
• broccoli
• mini burgers (wrapped in spinach picked fresh from the garden
• sweet pepper and onion confit (again)
• green beans with butter, garlic and sesame seeds
• a tomato sauce to go with the mini burgers, containing carrot and zucchini (last night's pasta sauce)
• grapes

For tomorrow I've got one side done already, and I think we'll be trying another recipe from the Just Bento cookbook.  At least, that's the plan.

Indira challenge:  spinach, zucchini and herbs in the past sauce, all from our garden.  Green beans from my mother's garden.

I made bento!

Those of long memory will recall that for a little while I got very into making bento lunches.  Ever since I fell out of the bento habit I've been wanting to get back into it, and yesterday afternoon we had such a lovely domestic Sunday afternoon that I just got into it.  I made up a few vegetable fillers and mentally planned out the boxes for the rest of the week (mostly) for both M and I.

The result:

• rice
• leftover Crispy Chicken Strips from last night's dinner (instead of the meatballs it was going to be, when I worked out there were four chicken strips left that shared perfectly to two each.)
• broccoli
• celery and broccoli stalk kinpira (using up some mostly-dead celery
• a little rocket, fresh from our garden.
• sweet pepper and onion confit
• blanched spinach with sesame sauce (from the Just Bento cookbook) p36
• grapes

Looking at the container, tomorrow will finish up the kinpira, and probably the steamed broccoli as well, so I should probably look at doing a couple more fillers tonight or tomorrow.  Carrots and green beans are both planned, and tomorrow one of the main vegetables will be asparagus with sesame sauce - I mixed up a decent quantity of sesame sauce yesterday.

Anyway, I'm very pleased with myself with getting this done today.  Now to see if we can keep it going!

For the Indira Challenge: rocket and spinach

Still catching up: #30lists 12 -15

• Decorating my parents' tree
• Driving around to look at Christmas lights a couple of nights before Christmas with my parents
• The Carols services at Chiltern and Yackandandah (so pleased that these will continue next year after our current conductor retires.)
• Our traditional family Thanksgiving dinner

• Podcasts, lots of podcasts.  
• Verity, 
• Rachel and Miles X-plain the X-Men, 
• Galactic Suburbia
• Splendid Chaps
• OMG the god-awful Bing Crosby CD on constant repeat at work.

• The DVD of "Once"
• Earrings
• Coffee cups
• My fitbit with a dead battery
• Journals and notebooks

Out the living room window:

• Christmas lights - white ones on the eves, the net of lights behind the zuchinni, stars beneath the verandah and then a fence of lights behind the corn.
• Our vegetable garden
• Next door's bush with purple flowers
• Our awesome outdoor setting

30 lists catch up - days 8 to 11

I got behind again - but not as far behind as I am on #adventword... (oops)!  So here's a few back numbers.

• "Top Gear" used to be my go-to cheering-up show, but it doesn't work so well anymore.  I think Clarkson hit the offensiveness saturation level in the last two years.  But old challenge DVDs still work.
• Watching the kitty-boys being cute
• Singing "Let it Go", and/or Adele songs, preferably at the top of my lungs
• Our garden

• My mother - for good or bad
• My partner
• Theologians and thinkers like Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Joan Chittester, and Robert Gribben
• Feminists like Dorothy Macrae-McMahon

• Sopa Seca (Moosewood Classics cookbook)
• Trenette al Pesto (also Moosewood Classics cookbook)
• Rice croquettes
• Sandbaklse (Swedish Christmas cookies)
• Pastry

• Cleaning house
• Washing the dishes
• Dealing with my manager at work
• At least half my desk-work
• Taking care of finances.