The Spice Satchel

Friday, February 3, 2012

Where is Winter?

I know I possibly shouldn't be asking this question, or perhaps I should be knocking on wood... Winter is nowhere to be found this year. It's not here anyway. It makes me even more sad for the Polar Bears, and so many other endangered species, to see the spread of what we humans have done to the planet. Last year we had blizzard conditions, and this year just 2 little snows. My feeling is that there still is time for a giant blizzard to sneak up on us- it's not even Valentine's Day yet. But even if that happens, it will be the most mild Winter I have ever seen. One morning of surprise ice on my car, and one 2 day snow/ice cover. That's it, the rest has been sun and green grass.

Sunday, January 1, 2012

Amanda Parker: fine artist

Amanda Parker is one of my great friends from all the way back in elementary school. She was always great at art, and really started loving it in high school. Now, she is an amazing painter/artist, and learning more about her passion everyday. She painted Paul and I a picture, and we just love it! Love it so much, we got another one from her, and it arrived the other day! I really like all the different things you can see in her work. The colors and shapes, the feelings and moods of the pieces. They are just great.
You can see more of her work, here on facebook, and she also has an ebay store.
The piece she painted just for Paul and I is titled The Lift.

The painting we saw, and just had to have because it is so cool, we saw on her facebook page, and purchased through ebay! It is called Calculating Chaos, which I thought was extra fitting since Paul is a math major.

I am so proud of her, pursuing her dream, painting, and loving every minute of it. Getting her work out there, doing what she really wants to do. I am also glad she has such a supportive husband by her side. Keep painting, Amanda!

She also drew the art for Paul's card game: Trebuchet! I love that I had a talent to incorporate too. He has been working on this game since 2006. It has changed a lot over its life, but it has been a lot of fun play testing, and designing the cards. I hope to blog more about this in the future. So much life going on right now.

Sunday, December 25, 2011

Stitch yourself a very merry Christmas

Merry Christmas everybody!

I love making gifts for people! This year, I didn't make as many as years past, and some are not done (or started :/) yet. I DID make a stocking for Bennett, to go with the ones I made for the rest of the Fisks :)

Paul and I drew the O'Connor family as the sibling draw for my family. I made them hats- owls for Mia and Gabriel, and stripes for Mike and Koleen. Koleen's stripes are swooped in a sprial, a very pretty pattern. I also made them peppermint ornaments for their tree. They go with the tree skirt I made last year!

Then I made Mia a new blanket, because the one one I made her before has holes all over it! This one I made out of stash yarn, which means left overs! It is very "Mia" if you ask me, and I added interest by making 3 sections with different fun stitches. Inara of course laid on it, because, well, that's what she does!

Paul's friends from college, Matt and Jess, who were married in 2003, are having a baby, so I also made them a blanket. We don't know if it is a boy or a girl, so I used MSU colors.

1 scarf, 8 scarf: Merry Christmas!

This Christmas I made a lot of gifts, but this is the first time I made gifts for someone else to give! Mary, who you may remember from the "how long does it take to make 2 skirts?" series asked me to make scarves for her friends! So exciting! I love making scarves, they don't take too long, and each one can be as different or similar as you'd like. Fancy stitch practice at its prime. I hope she and her friends love them!

I also sent her 9 headbands I made a long time ago. I was hoping to sell them (back then) but never really got the opportunity. Giving them as gifts is way better than letting them sit around. I do wear these headbands to work sometimes, very cute!

Tuesday, December 20, 2011

dragon cupcakes


copyright: Cori 2011

Paul has been talking about dragon cupcakes since Mia's Birthday party in November. Koleen and I made her sushi cupcakes. Very cute ones.

I looked a lot online for dragon cupcakes, and they were basically all frosting dragons, or whole cakes turned into dragons, or cupcakes squished together like a sheet cake with a picture of a dragon on it. So frosting dragons it is. Amy and I decorated cupcakes with dragons breathing fire. They are very amateur, but it was our first time, and I still think they are cute. The frosting is just Duncan Hines from the can colored with food coloring and dragons piped on. :) Some of the dragons look like hippos, or the little ogre from the Smurfs. At least they were made with love. I'm hoping over the next (lots of) years, our frosting piping skills will improve. :) And at least Amy turned the white icing into great colors! And we found some great red cupcake papers :)

kahlua

Mmm, coffee with kahlua. mmm, kahlua and cream. Mmm, kahlua. Making kahlua is actually easy, it just takes some time. There are a ton of recipes on the internet. Most of them use instant coffee, and after you make it, it needs about a month to sit, settle, and get ready. It makes great holiday gifts.

The recipe I've used the last several years goes like this:

3 cups water
3 cups sugar
10 teaspoons instant coffee
3 cups vodka
3 teaspoons vanilla extract

Simmer water, sugar & coffee for 1 hour in a large pot. It will thicken, and the sugar and coffee will dissolve. Let cool (if it's cold outside I usually stick it outside to cool faster).
Add vanilla & vodka. Bottle in sanitized bottles, let sit for a month, shaking every so often to mix.

Of course, I used Via for the instant coffee. it did a great job! (One pack per teaspoon)

Paul and Cori