A Few (Little) Things to Share

Last Saturday.

Ready and waiting.

Behold! My first properly soft-boiled eggs. (About time!)

A simple thing, which has multiple times eluded me. Finally a success! I need to do it again before I get too cocky but I am terribly excited!

And another exciting thing to share! It's Pepperkakor time.

Dala Horses! A whole herd!

A few gimpy ones...

I doubled the ginger, added black pepper and rolled them thinner. Quite a success. We have a lot of family cookies Miss Linda whips up every year (peanut butter blossoms, gingersnap gnomes with red iced hats, russian tea cakes/kourabiedes that my Dad calls Swedish Nut Balls etc etc) but these are my first Very Own holiday cookies. Special cookie cutter and everything!

And I bought a toaster! No more sitting on the floor watching bread toast! (or constantly burning it...)

I also bought a fat bottomed pasta pot to match my big stock pot (seen in action awaiting eggs for poaching with sauteed swiss chard on the side)

And the most A-dorable heat pillow which sits on my radiator soaking up heat and making my pillow smell like lavender. Soooo cozy.  I keep cuddling up in my blanket with it hugging my poor work worn neck as I read Jane Eyre.

And I completed my Three Day Band Ring class at Lillstreet Art Center! This was my first, a simple 22 gage sterling silver band that I punched the constellation of Orion onto.

This one was the most challenging, and I was very displeased with it for a bit. I put a sheaf of wheat through a press but the rubber cement I used to hold it in place marred the delicate impression. (I was pissed for a day.) Then I attacked it with my hack saw and punched in lines from my favorite W. Whitman poem:

"...Loafe with me on the grass-loose the stop from your throat; Not words, no music or rhyme I want-not custom or lecture, not even the best; Only the lull I like, the hum of your valved voice..." Song of Myself Pt. 5 from Leaves of Grass

I'm quite pleased with the results now, which serves me right for having an artistic hissy fit!

As that ring took 1.5 classes to complete my last project was a quick wee pinky ring made of 12 gage half-round sterling. I had actually asked for just such a ring for Christmas last year (I have a pinky ring problem.) and now have one I made myself! My camera was having a hard time focusing on something so small though. Sorry!

Not a hand model. At least you can't see my wrist which is sporting a lovely wee bruise from where I whacked it (twice) with the rubber mallet while punching holes in straps last week!

I'm home in Ohio for the Holidays but I have an Epic post coming up you will not want to miss: Gnomeageddon 2011.  Merry Christmas everybody!