Groupon Spelunking

I went looking for a specific item for a friend this morning on Groupon Goods.  It didn't occur to me to search for it because it had been advertised fairly recently and I figured I could scroll quickly and locate it.  Nope. I did encounter some interesting items though. 

You know it's a sports bra because it says so. Right on it!

"High-Compression, High-waisted Thong"

Loosely translated: wedgie machine.  Ow!

Awww Yeeeeeah.  Now this is something I can get behind. How many days until my birthday?

What is even going on here?

"Hand-painted" "Artisan". Sure.  There was a bridge I saw for sale the last time I was in NYC, too. 

I did find what I needed. I used the search bar. 

Oh YUM!

Well, the Patriots won't be going to Super Bowl 50. They tried. I will cheer as hard as I can for whomever is playing opposite Peyton Manning. 

Something that took the sting out of the loss was this amazing wonton soup from this fab blog The Woks of Life 

http://thewoksoflife.com/2013/12/simple-wonton-soup-2/

Omg. So good. 

It's a bit different than my potsticker recipe, more delicate. 

Ice Storm Knitting

No, I haven't forgotten the recipes. 

I need more prep for that post. 

But we are having our first frozen precipitation event of the 2015-16 winter, it's school vacation, Sweetie, and The Kid are home, the tree is on, so... I'm knitting. 

I don't have quite enough yarn to make this scarf, so we shall see how it turns out. It may be more like a kerchief. 

Link to the pattern

http://leahmichelledesigns.com/2014/07/22/free-pattern-totally-triangular-scarf-2/

Well, This Is New

Recently, my husband was diagnosed with a disorder that requires him to  be on a low fiber/low residue diet for a while. 

This is tough for a family of high fiber foodies. We love our veggies, we love them crunchy. Salads. Highly seasoned foods. Spicy. Garlic? That is its own food group. 

We were handed a two page list of acceptable things to eat with about seven veggies that have to be "well cooked". He has to limit fiber to about 10g a day. White rice. He hates white rice. Dairy is supposed to be limited, though he doesn't seem to have too much of a problem with it. We do have a lactose intolerant kid I have to cook for, as well, and I try to not cool 47 different things a night. 

There is precious little on the web for recipes.  Even information is scarce - and contradictory. 

So, I'm going to try to document the meals, at least the dinners - what worked and what didn't work so well- so maybe it can help. If I've come up with a recipe on my own, I'll include it. If I have modified one, I will include the link and then list my modifications under the link.

Here's hoping it helps someone!

Patriots Hat/Santa Hat

Hey there! Yes, I'm still around. Been in a funk for a year. We will see if I can keep this up. 

I was looking for a Santa Hat last year and ran across the "Penny's Santa Hat" from the Big Bang Theory. 

Absolutely freaking adorable.  I decided to try my hand. I couldn't make it work. 

I decided to try again this year and found one that called for 16" cable needles (Megan Dodson's "Penny's Santa Hat" on Ravelry.com) Yay! I like that. Some of the directions were a bit confusing - to me. But I'm an idiot knitter. (When it says to k5 k2tog 4x, I assumed they wanted me to do the decreases all the way around the tail, but the way the pattern read, they wanted me to do it for four rows. And the numbers didn't add up. It may have just been my tiredness level, but there were a couple of things like that. Just read it carefully. It will make sense.)

When looking at the photos of completed projects, I saw one someone had done one in Steelers (boo!) colors with a logo stitched in to the tail. Brilliant! (Except for the Steelers part). I decided forget Santa!

I need a NE Patriots hat! 

 

Never having done color strand work before, I gave up on that midway, deciding on duplicate stitch. Nope. Too many decreases. The stitches went off in too many different ways from the chart.   So, I will order some Swarovski crystals and make this thing sparkly! 

365-photo project

I haven't really done much to stretch my wings photographically in a really long time. With the death of my trusty D80 and the upgrade to the d7100, I decided to do something about that in 2015. If I figure out how to link my Instagram to here maybe it will auto update. Otherwise I'll try to update when I think about it. 

Here is what I have so far 

Prism Candle Conundrum

So let's have a discussion about the Prism Candles that are all over Pinterest.
Everyone who knows me knows that I have a problem.  I can't stop making the glitter mason jar candles (see post 1) and I fell in love with the glass marble covered "prism candle".  This is the original tutorial and I have seen a few others since then. One with blue marbles - oooh that was lovely!  I've read so many versions.  The main one says to use E6000.  People complain that it takes too long, and to use a glue gun.  Nope.  That might work quickly, but they won't stay very long.  In the comments of this tutorial, someone says to use a two part epoxy - that's not even clear. 

I decided to use the E6000 since that works with glass and I know it will work.  Next you have to decide - do you want an even top or even bottom.  Some people suggest starting at the bottom and working your way up.  This tutorial has you starting at the top and working your way down.  I kind of mixed the two and started at the top and worked my way down the side and then around until I could see both edges and then started to fill in and work my way down.  I didn't want a ribbon around the top of my jar - that's just not me - so my jar had to be even all around the top. I can't see the bottom from where I'm sitting, so I don't care that it's not perfect.

Lastly - she says this project takes hours.  It takes days.  And scotch tape is your friend. Once I discovered that little trick - my life was so much easier.  I also jumped in and did a quart jar - not the cute little jar she's used in the tutorial.

I also didn't brush any glue on.  I just smushed glue directly onto the jar and then plopped the marble on.  It wasn't sticking with the brush and stick method. Maybe because my jar had decorations on it? I don't know.  But those suckers are STUCK ON.

So, enjoy a pictorial essay of what my journey to prism candle holder nirvana looked like!  There isn't a point to re-do the tutorial - you can just click on her page.

Start

 

After I discovered the tape trick

The final project!