Happy New Beer vol. 1: Otto

I know it's not 2012 yet, but I thought I'd go ahead and roll out a new feature, Happy New Beer!  I'm going to attempt to review a new beer each week this year.  I'm not a super hard-core beer geek, so my reviews won't be overly technical.  I'm just a chick who likes beer.  Now, onto the good stuff:

This week's beer:  Otto!!

thanks, wikipedia

No, not that Otto.  This one!

Otto, brewed by Victory Brewing.  Not sure if this is a limited release or going to be added to their roster of seasonals.  According the label it combines the flavors of smoked malt with a traditional Belgian style dubbel.  Okay, I'll bite.

It poured out a nice pretty deep red color, with a creamy head.  It had an interesting aroma.  It smelled pleasantly smoky and woodsy, like a campfire on a chill autumn night. 

As far as taste goes, it felt like I was drinking two different beers.  At first sip, it had the fruity, yeasty flavor I'd expect from a dubbel, then it faded into the smoke flavor from the smoked malts.  Does anyone remember the movie "Charlie and the Chocolate Factory"?  You know the scene where the gum-obsessed girl takes the test gum and describes how the flavors change as she's chewing it?   That's the impression I got from sipping this beer--it's a dubbel! but wait, it's also a rauchbier!!

Overall impression, it was an interesting taste combination and a decent beer.  At 8% ABV, definitely not a chugger, but good sipped with a little dark chocolate.  I'd say it's worth a try, especially if you're looking to break out of a beer rut.

Wow, it's almost 2012

It's almost 2012, and I'm still semi-keeping up with this blog.  I lasted longer than I thought I would.  I've really enjoyed doing this.  At first I was worried about trolls and the like, but it seems the only troll I've had to contend with exists in real life, sadly.  I wish there was a magic delete key I could use on his ass every time he made nasty remarks about my supposed lack of parenting skills or "accidentally" touched my leg.  Whatever.  Haters gonna hate.  Think I'll add "be more assertive" to my list of 2012 resolutions.

Anyone else hit up the big 1.99 pattern sale Jo-Ann fabrics had a few weeks back?  I did.  I actually went back twice and now have a stash of 15 or so patterns.  In 2012 I want to sew at least one item from each pattern I bought.

This past year we had a couple nice family trips out to fruit farms and some nice preserves to show for it.  I want to step up our picking/canning in the coming year.  It's a fun day out as a family plus there are tasty goodies to show for our hard work.

I'm toying with the idea of trying and reviewing a new beer each week.  I live in a region of the U.S. that is awash in great beer.  Plus, I love beer.  It's proof that God loves us and wants us to be happy!

Anyone out there resolving to do something awesome in 2012?

And here i am brushed out

Here's my melon after a little brushing.  I can dig it.  It was pretty easy to do and showering at night is easier with an active three year old anyway.

Pincurls in the morning

Looking a bit poodly here.  In this pic i've just woken and unpinned my head.

Pincurls!

So I decided to give pin curls a try!  After reading a couple of tutorials, i took a shower, grabbed some bobby pins and went to town.  After wrapping my head, i realized i didn't have a scarf, so i fished half a tshirt out of my sewing pile.  What will my head look like in the morning?  Shiny curls?  Epic rats nest?  Weird al?  Who knows?

Some more resin stuff

So I finally found my card reader!  Here's my first batch of cast resin pieces:

Things I learned-stuff placed in/on resin will sink right to the bottom of the mold.  Sometimes this is good, like in the candy pieces.

Glitter, not so much:

see how the glitter got in front of one of the butterflies?

Every mistake gets me closer to finding what works.  I did a second set that I feel came out much better.  Still trying to figure out the best way to finish these into an actual piece of jewelry.

Pics!!

I figured out how to work the scanner portion of the printer/copier/scanner I bought 8 months ago!  I started fiddling with it again this afternoon when I found a box of old photos.  It's amazing what lies buried in closets.  Did you know that once upon a time my parents owned the World's Ugliest Couch?

Not only was it hideous, it was upholstered in an evil scratchy fabric that caused little welts all over my skin if I sat on it.  Oddly enough, when concealed beneath a slipcover it was a great piece of furniture.  Sturdy, fairly comfortable, good for crashing on, and seated six adults comfortably.  It was sent to the great living room in the sky years ago, but sometimes I kinda miss it. 

Resin adventures

Still here!  Just haven't felt like doing much of anything for a while.  I've been in a creative dry spell.  I've been surfing around, looking for something to kickstart me again, and I found some neat looking resin jewelry.  So I got some resin and a basic mold and decided to give it a shot.  Unfortunately, I don't have any pictures because my card reader has vanished *again*.  But this is similar to what I did:

from http://www.squidoo.com/handmaderesinjewelry

Instead of a bangle, I did some little shapes, and I used halloween candy instead of generic sprinkles.  Once I get handling the resin down, I have another idea I want to try.

Deep Thoughts

Why can't I find Schweddy Balls ice cream near me?

Why do people embarrass themselves on reality shows?  Who watches Jerseylicious?

How can I get my two year old to stop yelling "this is crap!!!" when we're out shopping?

How long can I hang on to the jalapenos in the fridge?

What's the odd flavor in my latest batch of homebrew?

I caught someone gossiping about me months ago, and I'm still pissed.  Thanksgiving's gonna be fun.  *eyeroll*

What's peg distearate?

IT'S ALIVE!!!!!!!

The keyboardectomy was a complete success!  I can haz laptop once again!!

I'm not dead yet!

.....but i am feeling a bit like the black knight lately.  laptop's still out of commission, and now the desktop won't boot up.  I've been reduced to posting from my phone.  Smartphone to the rescue!

So before all my electronics committed suicide, i was going to post a swimsuit review.  I've decided to shelve that for now and play with the picture function on my phone for a bit.
Here i am chillaxin watching the phils game.

The Prognosis is Good!

Well, my laptop still isn't functional, but there is hope!  My friend the professional geek says that since it still powers and boots up fine, a simple keyboard transplant should make it 100% again.  Yay!!!

I had no idea how attached to my laptop I was until the spill.  It's weird, it's like this hunk of technology has become my friend.  Anything I'm curious about I google.  I spend more time on facebook than is good for me, while the laundry and dishes pile up around me.  Maybe this temporary outage is a blessing in disguise-a reminder that life isn't meant to be viewed through an LCD screen. 

I'm getting my first green beans this summer from my CSA today.  I think instead of chucking them in the freezer like the corn, I'll make up a batch of dilly beans.  Time to log off and prepare the canner!

Still Alive--sort of.

Just a quick note to let y'all out in cyberspace know I'm still kicking around.  My original plan was a post on how well my swimsuits performed on vacation, but then my kid knocked a glass of iced tea on my laptop.  Since the display still comes on and only the keyboard appears to be fuxxored, I'm holding on to some slim hope it's fixable.  My buddy the professional geek will tell me for sure this weekend.

While trying not to freak the fuck out over the possible loss of my laptop, I think I'm going to head to the local sewing place and pick up some good scissors and finally get around to poking at the sewing machine my mom gave me.  I've got scrap material, pillow forms and batting I scored months ago on freecycle, a pattern, and a project from Craft in mind.

Walking

"Live isn't about finding yourself, it's about creating yourself".

I don't know who said it, but I saw it in this video:

"Walking" by Mary Mary.

I'm not much on religious music but I catch myself humming this song all the time.  It strikes a chord with me when I'm going about my daily routine--living a life that at 14 I did not think I would ever live.  I didn't think I'd ever get married, or have kids, or have a house of my own that wasn't falling down around me, or live in a place I actually wanted to be.  I'm leaving the shit behind me and walking, and I'm enjoying it.

And after weeks of internal deliberation and being all chicken about it, I finally called the coolest hairdresser in town and booked an appointment.  I'm getting a big ass stripe of color near my face and some feather extensions.  This is a big departure for me, but I think I'm ready for it.  Walk on!

Beer and Swimwear

BOTH SUCCESSES!!!!  Hauling that heavy-ass carboy upstairs to "cold ferment" in front of the air conditioner in our bedroom paid off.  The beer has a nice fizz, a refreshing lemon flavor when you first taste, and a hint of lavender at the end.

The swimsuits both fit and I'm pleased with both.  I'll do a write up with pics later.

Geeking out in the kitchen

Homebrewing and canning are two of my many hobbies.  Yeah, it would be easier to pick up a case of beer or a jar of jam, but where's the fun in that?  I love being able to hand a guest a beer or a cracker spread with my latest savory jam and say "I made this". 
A couple weeks ago, I started a new batch of beer.  My son wanted to help, so I gave him a brush and let him clean out a carboy.

I hope the desire to "help" continues as he gets older.  I can dream, can't I?  Anyway, I got a kit from my local homebrew shop and decided to tweak it a little with some honey and a quick lavender syrup I made up on the stove.  It has a week to go before I can open it.  Hope it's good!

Today while the kid slept, I made some red onion jelly.  I love savory jellies and jams as glazes for grilled meat and spread on a cracker with cream cheese.  I make regular fruit preserves as well, but the savories are my favorites. 

I love the nice red color on these.  All natural!  I find my savory spreads taste even better after a little time on the shelf, so I'm going to stash them in the pantry for a week or two. 

The giant land of suck that is plus size swimwear.

The title pretty well sums it up.  Today I decided to go through the family swimwear in anticipation of our vacation at the end of the month.  To my dismay my trusty miraclesuit has finally given up the ghost.  I got six good years of use out of it, so I feel I got my money's worth.  That suit went on my honeymoon to Jamaica, to the Outer Banks twice, and numerous trips to the Jersey shore and city pools.  However, my back-up suit from Target can kiss my ample ass.  Barely half a dozen uses in 2010 and it's falling apart.  Well, you get what you pay for.

So, I hit the intarwebz in search of replacement swimwear.  I hate about 99% of the plus sized offerings.  I'm NOT wearing a seizure inducing neon floral print.  Don't even get me started on the skirted suits.  Why don't they just write "I'm not fat under here!" on the hem??  I was grumbling about this in front of my son, who has been running all over the house yelling "IM NOT FAT UNDER HERE" for the last hour.  And why did everything in black sell out in MARCH??  Nobody waits until it's actually warm enough to swim to buy swimwear? 
Here's an example of what I'm talking about....

What the fuck????

You can just tell the model wants to rip this suit off and kill it with fire.  This is just one example out of a thousand.  What pisses me off the most is the assumption that fat women don't go nice places and want to wear nice swimwear when we get there.  We're not all sitting in kiddie pools eating frozen twinkies and chugging Meister Brau, assholes.  Although a frozen twinkie doesn't sound half bad right now....

After an hour of searching, I found two that I liked.  I'll let you know if they are keepers when I get them.

Coffee, coffee BUZZBUZZBUZZ

I was skimming the headlines on msnbc when I spotted this:  5 Hour Energy binge sends woman to hospital.  She had been drinking 10 bottles a day for 2 weeks.  That's 700 hours of "energy" in a 336 hour period!!  The article neglected to say why she needed that much energy.  Was she cramming for a final?  Ten finals?  Trying to do a semester's worth of college in a week?  Working three full time jobs?  Terrified of sleep? 

I have had my ups and downs with caffiene.  I used to drink almost my blood volume in diet coke, but when I got pregnant I phased it out.  I have it now and then, but mostly I drink iced tea.  Without it, I become an angry zombie.  However, my worst caffiend period of my life was when I worked at Starbucks.  They allowed us to have as many brewed beverages as we wanted on shift.  I worked the early morning shift and would start off with a five shot venti iced americano.  4:30am is harsh and I needed the caffiene bomb to get going.  By 2:30pm when my shift was over, I'd be dragging my knuckles on the floor, so I'd make another to sip on my walk home.  My hands shook all the time.  My sweat smelled of coffee.  Yeah, there's such a thing as too much coffee.

But how much is lethal?  This nifty website will tell you exactly how much of your favorite caffiene laden beverages will kill you in a single sitting.  Sadly, they don't have five shot venti iced americanos listed.

Pick-your-own adventure

Yesterday we took a family trip out to Haines Berry Farm to pick some blueberries.  The kid seemed to love it.  He kept yelling "booberries!!!" and seemed surprised to find out that they come from bushes, not plastic clamshell packages.  Together three of us picked 13lbs of berries, but that was nothing compared to the haul a couple older women brought in as we were leaving.  They filled seven 25lb pails of berries!  That's an insane amount of blueberries.
We brought our box of berries home and I made 8 and 1/2 pints of blueberry jam, loaded the food dehydrator with berries to dry, stuck a couple pounds in the freezer, made a quart of booze berries, and I still have fresh berries in the fridge. 
Last night I dreamed I was buried in blueberries.

Well, I tried.

My creative urges are rapidly being sucked down a black hole.  I haven't made anything new in five days.  Without putting all my business out there, I'll just say that there is a problem in my life and all my energy has been diverted to working out a solution.  I can't seem to be treated with basic human respect.  So many people in my life think it's okay to not listen to me, to disregard my wishes, to commit me to things without even asking me, etc.  I don't know how to put a stop to this.

30 Days of Creativity day 16

On day 16, I worked on a couple of butterfly pendants:

A pair of pretty pink butterflies.  1st one:

Pretty happy with how this one turned out.  Gonna add a protective coat and put it on a chain with a few embellishments.
2nd butterfly:

This one, not so much.  Colors good, outline needs work.  I'm gonna reheat this one and try again,

30 Days of Creativity day 15

Wow, halfway done already?  Seems like I just started this!

Today I was messing around with some wire.  I was trying to make a small butterfly, but the proportions are way off.

Still like this idea.  I'm gonna keep playing around with it.

30 Days of Creativity day 14

Doodle!!

Last night my son and his buddy were making some art at the table with a huge piece of paper.  I grabbed a marker and started doodling in a corner.  I used to doodle like this a lot in school, usually when I was supposed to be taking notes on some dull subject.  I'm toying with the idea of doing some free-form doodles on shrink plastic and then shrinking them.

30 days of Creativity days 12 and 13

It's a two-fer! 
So yesterday I was working on this:

It's a friendly plastic butterfly pendant with a couple fancy dangles.  I love the key.  I actually found it with the scrapbooking stuff.

And today, I did this:

Shrink plastic I.D. style bracelet with stencils and stamps.  I used an old salsa jar while the plastic was still hot to give it that curve.

30 Days of Creativity day 11

This one's a work in progress.  I'm working on a soda/beer tab maille bag.

Unfortunately, I'm out of tabs.  Time to go for a walk in the park and look for some.   I'd really like this to have a flap like a messenger bag.  That's going to take a lot of tabs.

30 Days of Creativity day 10

Still behind, but hey, there's always tomorrow.

Today I completed my most ambitious shrink jewelry project yet.  Presenting the Bib Necklace of Awesomeness!!!!

This project was originally conceived of as a bracelet.  When my original idea didn't pan out, I decided to try a necklace.  I have a few minor structural revisions in mind for this design before I'd feel confident offering it for sale, but overall I'm pretty happy with it.

30 Days of Creativity day 9

Yeah, I'm a day behind.  Maybe I'll get caught up this weekend.  Maybe.  Moving on....today I bring you red velvet bacon cupcakes.

Oh, yeah

Full disclosure, I used a mix for the cupcakes.  It sounds gross, but the salty bacon on top of the sweet icing tasted awesome.  Hail bacon!

30 Days of Creativity day 8

More shrinky dink goodness:

I really like how this one turned out.

30 Days of Creativity day 7

Playing with the poetry magnets on my fridge.

I have two sets.  One is cat themed, the other was a freebie from a clean energy group.  We've made some interesting combinations with the two.

30 Days of Creativity day 6

A day late, a dollar short, blah, blah, blah......

OM NOM NOM

This looked prettier before it was half eaten.  Fresh strawberries from just outside the city taste so much better than ones trucked in from 3,000 miles away.  Next year I vow to get to the pick your own farm and put some up.  I got a pint of these ripe lovelies in my CSA share, and cooked them into a simple sauce and put them on a super easy no-bake cheesecake.  Mmmmmmm.

30 Days of Creativity day 5

So for day 5, I decided to try my hand at an all recycled materials project. 

I have so many of those old store loyalty keytags hanging around my house.  I decided to try to dress one up a bit.  The foils and paper I punched the butterflies out of are old samples my husband brought home from work.  I'm feeling kind of "meh" about this, but I think the idea might have legs.  Mini artist trading card?  Art loyalty card?

30 days of creativity day 4

It's day 4 of 30 Days of Creativity, and I decided to bust out the shrinky dinks!  Yep, shrinky dinks, the plastic sheets we played with as kids.  I've seen some great shrinky dink jewelry, so I've been playing around with making some jewelry elements of my own out of the shrinky stuff.  Today I did these earrings:

Sorry the pics are so crappy.  I was too lazy to find my lightbox.

I really like how these turned out, especially the green color.  Color is tricky with these guys, because it becomes more saturated as it shrinks.  I've got a couple more sheets left to play with, and some more ideas brewing.

30 Days of Creativity day 3

I think I'm gonna do two make-up days randomly to catch up, but for now here's my offering for day 3:  chunky cocktail rings!

Sorry, I really need a damn tripod.

What happens when you combine ring blanks, glass globs, and glitter?  Sparkly goodness!   I am really liking how these turned out.  Should I stick 'em in my etsy store?
I have no idea what to do for tomorrow, but I'm excited.  already I'm enjoying this challenge.

30 Days of Creativity Challenge

I'm a little late to the party on this one, but there' still 27 days of June left, so I'm gonna dive in and take the 30daysofcreativity challenge.  This should be fun, I've never done anything like this before. 

Toy animal rack

I saw this over at Craft: and thought it was too cool not to share:

I'm gonna pillage my husband's Dungeons and Dragons stuff and find some extra dragons.  I want a dragon coat rack for my son's room. 

OMG AMAZING RAPTURE VIDEO!!!111ONE ONEONE

Sorry, just had to.  Hope everyone's having a good end of days!

Jewelry Class update

Went to jewelry class last night and I have a few goodies in progress to show off.  First up, a simple little copper stamped disc:

I'm gonna dangle a leaf bead on the front and put it on a brass chain.
I have been working on this piece for weeks.  Finally, it's mostly done!!

You would not believe how many attempts I made at soldering this motherfucker before I finally got it right.  You can still see some bits of solder on the front, but at this point I don't care.  I'm going to attach chains to the two rings at the top.  I think I'll call it the MF necklace, because I certainly said that a lot during it's creation.

And a cuff:

Sorry about the blurry middle pic.  I've drank like a pitcher of iced tea today.  Maybe I should get a tripod.  The bracelet is copper and I fried it with the torch to make some funky oxidized colors.  Maybe I should make another one and send it to Charlie Sheen.

Exploding Watermelons

Yes, this is a real thing.  This article makes me want to take a closer look at the sources of my family's food.  I'd rather not have any exploding fruit in my kitchen. 

Grrrr

 *EDIT* Angry cat must have gotten the point across.  All hail angry cat!

Blogger ate my Fat Girl Flea Market part 2 post!  D'oh!  I'm gonna wait a day or two for all the blogger bugs to iron themselves out, then I'll repost it.  FIX UR STUFF, BLOGGER!

Fat Girl Flea Market part 2 (with pics)

Finally!  Kid's at the babysitter's house, so here are some pics of my goodies from the Fat Girl Flea Market:

Baby Phat Capris

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Super comfy and cute pajama pants

I don't normally do florals, but I like this

light, breathable shirt for exercising

The picture doesn't really show, but there's some shirring on the bust of this top.  It's more form fitting than what I'm used to.

Oh, and this one is the most ass-kicking find of them all:

Object in the photo is way more awesome than it appears.

This evening dress is straight up bad ass.  A fellow fatshionista I was chatting with in line on the way in decided to throw this back and asked if I might want to try it.  Holy fuck am I glad I did!  It appears black in the photos, but it's really a super chocolate brown net over a shimmery copper satin under layer with copper beading with an asymmetrical fluttery hem

BEWBS! Oh, and check out the beading.

My attempt to show the hem and skirt

I think I'm going to wear this to my brother's wedding in October.  It's a Saturday night reception, with an afterparty after the reception, and a babysitter for the kids.  It's gonna be a great time.  I think I'm going to sew a little copper silk shrug or jacket to put over my shoulders for the ceremony.
Not pictured-a neat turquoise peasant top that's in the wash, and a blazer my husband took a picture of that I'm making a really weird face in.

Total for all these goodies was $29.  That's right, twenty nine dollars.  Long live the Fat Girl Flea Market!!

Awesome Cooking Video

I'm still hanging in here.  Husband returns friday, TGIF!  Kid's in bed and I found this nugget of awesome:

Heavy metal vegan cookery!  WINNING!

BRB!

I haven't forgotten about my blog, I promise!  Things just got kind of busy in meatspace, then my husband's job sent him away for a week.  It's just me and my two year old here, gods help me.  I'm going to try to grab a couple pics of my flea market finds while the kid naps.  Here's hoping for a relatively tantrum free week!

Fat Girl Flea Market Wrapup (part 1)

Allrighty, I promised a wrapup and I shall deliver!  So was it worth the trip?  Abso-fuckin-lutely!!!  Part 2 will have pics of my finds, but I wanted to get a few thoughts out first. 

After rolling into Penn Station, I decided to take a brief side trip to 37th between 7th and 6th.  I had heard from a little birdie there were some wholesale bead shops over there.  Most were only open monday thru friday, but I did find one that was open and got an awesome haul of glittery treasures including some rockin' skull beads!

Magpie like urges fulfilled, I caught the subway downtown for the flea market.  The place was so packed, I had to wait in line for a bit to get in.  However, it was totally worth it.  Piles of clothes(and ladies) everywhere!!  Elbow room was at a premium, and in a less hospitable crowd I would have been nervous, but the self-love was everywhere.  It was such an amazing pool of size positive energy.  Everyone was chatting, swapping finds, and generally being awesome.

Oh, and a mariachi band hopped on the train down.  How cool is that??  Part 2 to come once I locate and fire up the camera.

Fat girl flea market

It was awesome!! Intense, but awesome.  pics of my haul when I get home

Chopping humanity up into neat little segments

So there's an ongoing battle in my neighborhood to prevent a developer from plopping down a crappy strip mall with discount crap stores.  They claim "our studies say the demographics don't support an actual grocery here, blah blah blah blah".  Since this quite frankly is bullshit, and the developer won't show his report, a community activist is assembling her own to share.  Which leads me to this nifty little website:  Esri Data.  They've got American consumers carved up into 65 neat little boxes.  Some of the details are average age, race, area, and little factoids such as "eats at Friendly's" "owns/leases Honda" "watches cable tv" "plays soccer".  This whole thing strikes me as kind of odd.  My household doesn't fit neatly into any of the boxes.  But I am finding it very interesting to get an inside look at how businesses look at potential customers and how to locate stores/separate them from their money.

Oh, and how do you know if a developer is lying?  HIS LIPS ARE MOVING! LOL

Quote of the Day

"I don't have low self-esteem.  I have low esteem for everyone else."  Daria Morgendorffer. 

Just put the kid down for a nap and found a couple episodes of Daria.  I love this show.

Fat Girl Flea Market

I was aimlessly browsing the fatosphere yesterday when I ran across this:  2011 Fat Girl Flea Market.  A buttload of plus size clothes?  Nothing more than $10?  Benefits a good cause?  Coats, formals and swimwear?  Sexytime lingerie?  WANT!!!

Once I collected my jaw from my keyboard, I made plans to go.  Even though it's a two hour train trip for me, I have a feeling it will be worth it.  And who can resist a trip to Manhattan? Not me! Woohoo!

The Cycling of Trends, or Return of the 90's

As a lover of vintage stuff, I like to follow the cycling of fashion trends and try to predict which things will come back and when.   I have a feeling the 1990's are due for a resurgence, and as someone who came of age during that decade, I cringe.  Remember grunge?  I remember seeing ads in Seventeen magazine for hair products to make it appear you had not washed your hair.  WTF.  And how about distressed jeans (which I don't believe ever went completely away)?  If I'm forking over $80 or more for a pair of jeans, they should have knees.
Oh, and there were kids in my high school that did this:

Yep, their clothes are on backwards.  This one didn't last long.  Who else remembers Umbros?

Shiny and Neon!  Why not write "LOOK AT MY ASS!!!!!!!!!" on your butt instead and save a couple bucks?
And I couldn't leave these out:

STOP!!!! Hammertime!  I'll admit that the first concert I ever went to was M.C. Hammer at the state fair with my dad and little brothers.  Good times.