Wandering around the Kindred Spirit blogs is always inspirational, as recent doings attest.
I’ve especially enjoyed the return of Deb’s Artisun blog, on which she recently posted a delightful little pillow called a biscornu.Since I was relatively uninspired by the James Madison University pillow that I made for granddaughter Logan, I took it apart and restitched it biscornu-style …
and was pleasantly surprised at how it was transformed into a pouf almost 8” high …
Much better!
I’ve also been following the back-and-forth between Nancy and Grace relating to bands of color during which Nancy posted a pin on Pinterest that reminded me of the walking sticks Don painted using leftover paint some time back …
Serendipitously, the picture of our front porch, where the walking sticks live, also shows a NO TO WAR poster from Barry Smith at Rustnstuff.
I finished another Glennis moon patch, edged with two strands of Deb Lacativa’s magically variegated floss …
Which is all by way of saying “thanks!” to all the bloggers who put so much time into contributing to their respective communities. I am grateful each and every day by what I see and read.
I finished the stitching on the JMU pillow and put a 20” x 20” pillow form in … not good as the covering of the form was too stiff. So I made my own pillow form with harem cloth and Perfect Loft, which I like much better than regular fiber fill …
Unfortunately, I didn’t have quite enough, so the pillow is buckling along the sides. Ah well, I’ve placed an order for more filling with Amazon and will truly finish the pillow once that arrives.
Speaking of JMU and Amazon, the alumni fundraiser for Abby Zwerner that I mentioned a couple of posts ago has resulted in a fair bit of delivery activity …
So much so that the postal service hasn’t been able to deliver my contribution … too many packages to fit in the mail box?!
Coincidentally, Don has been working in purple and gold, too. He found a photo that he liked of Bodie Island Light (on the Outer Banks of North Carolina, pronounced “body” if you were wondering) …
and came up with this acrylic rendering …
which has found a home in the dining room … for now at least …
I’ll end with this funny story … Griffin recently asked what PopPop’s largest painting was. We said it was the one currently living at Melissa’s house, which is 20” x 40” …
Wrong! We were informed that PopPop’s largest artwork is in fact the back porch, which continues to be blessed most days with leftover paint water …
And yes, it was warm enough to sit outside with bare feet yesterday … a record-setting 82 degrees. I think I’ll head out there now to what it’s like today … pollen be damned 😉
Wanting to figure out a way to get back to blogging more regularly, I went to the library and checked out Tiny Habits. Sure enough, there were plenty of ideas, of which the most promising was to find a way to hook a new habit onto a well-established routine, which the author called a prompt.
I confess that I don’t stitch everyday, so that wouldn’t be a reliable prompt. Although I’m pleased to report I have made considerable progress on the JMU pillow front and back (aka one side and the other), having decided to make Grace’s log cabin spirals rather than the originally planned patchplay …
Which reminds me, I contributed to a book fundraiser hosted by JMU alumni in Williamsburg. They’re gathering books on kindness, caring, and empathy in honor of Abby Zwerner, who continues to recover from her gunshot wounds. The books will be donated to elementary schools in the Williamsburg/Newport News area. Here’s a link to the Amazon gift registry if you’re interested (note: choose “ship to Carmen Jones” … the actual address won’t show, but all the books will go to a central location where they can get bookplates before being delivered to the schools).
But I digress. Gotta think of a more reliable routine to hook blogging onto. So I considered breakfast as a possible prompt, as it’s something I never skip!
Which reminds me. Back in our Williamsburg days I discovered Kashi 7-grain Pilaf …
I would cook up a packet and keep it in the fridge to add to otherwise single-note hot cereals. It had a rich nutty flavor and wonderful texture. Had … as in, no longer has … since Kashi discontinued the product some years ago. After many tries at various ground multi-grain cereals, I finally decided to try putting together my own whole grain blend at the Central Market bulk food bins …
Recalling that the original Kashi always seemed to have something that was either under- or over-cooked, I looked up various suggested cooking times and techniques for whole grains in hopes of getting everything to the perfect degree of toothsomeness.
Research in hand, I put a pot of lightly salted water on to boil, then added 1/3 cup each of rye berries and wheat berries. After 15 minutes at a simmer, I added 1/3 cup of red rice. And oh, that’s when a wonderful aroma began to fill the air. After another 15 minutes, I added 1/3 cup of pearled barley and 1/3 cup of toasted buckwheat (aka kasha). I had planned to cook everything a final 30 minutes, but at 20 minutes it seemed slightly overdone. So I took the pot off the heat and made a note to try 15 minutes next time. Which is to say, a total of 45 minutes of simmering. I also decided against adding sesame, which turned out to be a good call.
After draining and cooling the grains to room temperature, I put them into the fridge. The next morning I nuked 1/8 cup rolled wheat (similar to oatmeal, but more tasty imo) and 2/3 cup almond milk for five minutes at 70% power. Then scooped in two heaping tablespoons of the whole grains and nuked it all for another minute. The resulting awesome-ness was topped with a bit of cream, butter, and brown sugar …
Leaving me to wonder why I didn’t try doing this sooner! So so good.
And that got me thinking … maybe breakfast could be my prompt to blog. But no, at that point in the day I want to get going on straightening the kitchen and starting the laundry and doing some Pilates-style stretching. Or shopping … which is almost always best done early in the day.
So now I’m writing this after lunch, which is another firmly established habit and possible prompt. I’m hoping it will prove to be a good time for blogging. There’s enough light if I need to take pictures, and it’s a great way (ahem, excuse) to delay starting in on whatever I need to do in the afternoon.
We’ll see … the proof will be in the pudding. Which reminds me, I saw a great recipe for Budino in Smitten Kitchen today … 😉
I'm Going to Texas (version 2.0) 