"Quitting" Christmas

Ever feel like the Christmas season starts way too soon?  Of course, this would have been a common complaint back in October or November, but after a really stressful weekend, I've come to realize why people start so early.

It's now the weekend before Christmas weekend, which should really be the weekend that everything gets wrapped up.  Yet I've been putting off getting into Christmas, that by the time I get into the spirit, Christmas will have already come and passed.

This weekend was really stressful and busy for me.  I hadn't realized that I'd have so little time to make the gift I had intended for my brother before he leaves for Japan/Taiwan for the holidays.  I wanted to make him a pair of fingerless gloves to wear around Japan.  I peeked at my yarn stash on Friday, and the only yarn I had that was the right weight, quantity, and not-too-feminine color, was the two skeins of Classic Elite Portland Tweed in a light gray.  I thought it would be too girly, but again, I was on a short time frame, so I cast on and started knitting.

Saturday, I ran a few errands in the morning, and then joined my friend in New York City to do some shopping.  We went to Chinatown, stopped by a couple of places in SoHo, and worked our way back up to the Macy*s on 34th Street.  I figured the city would be crowded, and sure enough, it was.  One of my stops was Purl Soho, where I had hoped to pick up a darker shade of gray yarn for my brother's gloves.  Selection wasn't as varied as I'd have hoped, but I did pick up a yarn, only to figure out later on that I liked the first yarn I chose, even if it would come off as feminine.  The remaining challenge was that the pattern took a while to knit, and I've since had to settle with the assumption that I wouldn't be able to finish the other glove (I finished one over the weekend) and ship it overnight to him.

I've established my reputation as the "crafter" in my workplace.  However, I have one coworker who works some really beautiful projects with her Cuttlebug and Cricut machines.  I suppose I took it as a challenge, subconsciously, to have handmade cards, since she'd be making her own cards, as well.  This added to my stress over the weekend, because it was one more thing to do on my list.  All in all, I was supposed to make about 15 cards, 3 pairs of fingerless gloves, a scarf, a cowl, and two amigurumi minions from the movie Despicable Me.

Now to the point of this post- the reason why people start earlier and earlier this year could be, in part, because there's so much to do before December 25.  And yet, who are we really doing all this for?  I wanted to accomplish all that knitting, crochet, and cardmaking, but is it really for the recipients of my gifts, or is it for me?  I was too focused on making this the perfect Christmas, but it was perfection by my standards.  The only Christmas that was ever perfect was the very first one.  The one where Jesus came as a baby, lying in a manger.  No other Christmases after that could possibly match the importance, scale, and scope of the first one.

Another complaint about this season is that it's too commercialized, and it's true.  I had probably assumed somewhere along the line, that making most of my own gifts would make me a better person than if I were to buy all the gifts I planned on giving.  Yet I still missed the point, and I got caught up in the concept of giving out gifts, forgetting that the real gift this season is more of a reminder that the Messiah was born.  I've spent too much money, too much time, and too much effort in making the season perfect by my standards.  But as they say, "Keep Christ in Christmas."  And really, that is what we should remember this Christmas season.

I apologize for such a somber post; I do have plans to post pictures of what I've made for others, but that can wait, no?

Handmade Holiday 2011 - Mug Charms

Every Friday night my parents have company over for Bible study.  My mom acquired a set of mugs to serve beverages in, and because the mugs all looked the same, she tried to differentiate them by painting small designs on the handles using puff paint.  However, because the mug surface was smooth, the paint did not stick very well, and several of the designs she had painted had peeled off.  This Christmas, I thought of making wineglass rings to fit around the handles of the mugs.  These mugs had handles that were wider than a "typical" mug, so the rings had to be wider, too.

To make the rings, I used the following:

• 16-gauge copper jewelry wire (the lower the gauge, the thicker the wire)
• Charms (I picked up two packs of heart and circle shaped charms)
• Jump rings (If your charms come with jump rings or are already designed to lay flat with your wire, you may not need additional jump rings, then)
• Assorted color glass beads (make sure the hole in the bead is big enough to thread onto your wire)
• Wire cutter, ruler
• Round-nose (or needle-nose) pliers
• A small wine bottle to wrap the wire around to shape it

The wide mug handle compared to the "standard" one can be seen here:

See how the handle on the left is wider?

1. To make the charms, first cut your jewelry wire into lengths long enough to circle around your mug handle.  I first started cutting lengths of 5" wire but realized that was too big, so I trimmed an inch off and ended up using 4" lengths of wire.
2. Take a jump ring and, using your pliers, open it up just enough to thread your charm onto the ring.
   
3. Once the charm is threaded on, close up the ring.
   
4. Take your jewelry wire and wrap it around the neck of the bottle so that it takes on a round shape.
   
5. Remove the wire, and thread on your charm.  Add a couple of beads on both sides.  You could also add on more beads, if you'd like.
6. Now hold the ends of the wire, leaving space on one end for you to create a loop using your pliers.  Take the other end of the wire, and put it through the loop.  Use your pliers to create a hook to keep the loop in place.  Shape the wire to your liking.
7. Repeat for as many charms as you'd like to make.  My mom had twelve mugs, so I made a set of twelve.

I also got a jewelry box to display the charms.  My finished product looks like this:

The beauty of this project is that it's highly customizable.  So long as each charm is distinguishable, you could use whatever you want- large glass beads, gemstones, etc.

Hello world (again)!

This past new year's, I resolved to make a blog chronicling my forays into knitting, crochet, sewing, cooking, etc.  It only lasted about two posts before I lost interest.  I'm hoping that it will be different with this attempt (there's no pressure to make new year's resolutions and to keep them since it's a random date in early December).

So here it is, a blog I hope to resuscitate and fill with posts about projects I'm knitting and crocheting, dishes I'm cooking/baking, and other attempts at creating things!

~E

Japan Again!

I didn't think I'd be posting about Japan so soon, but my grandparents are celebrating their 60th wedding anniversary so my parents and I flew over last Wednesday.

New Year, New Blog!

Blogging seems to be quite the trend lately, and to follow suit with my friends and their food+photo and food+film blogs, I've decided to start one of my own, a food+needlework blog.  It is my hope that this will develop into a solid thing, not like the other attempts I've had at regular blogging.

A little info about me/about this blog- I recently graduated with a degree in finance and even more recently started living on my own, in a small one-bedroom apartment.  Up until now, I would cook for my family or my friends, never for myself on a daily basis.  I've also discovered cooking as a hobby of sorts, right up there with...

Knitting!  And crochet.  I learned to knit years ago (you can find me at my Ravelry account here!), and this blog would be a fun place to share my knitted/crocheted creations.

Anyway, I just wanted to say hi to the world, and maybe follow up with some food recipe soon.

Pan-Fried Lemon Chicken

Ruth (my roommate) and I decided to experiment today.  I bought a pack of boneless chicken thigh last Saturday, and we're planning on battering them in egg w/ lemon juice and flour w/ lemon zest, black pepper, and garlic salt.  The fail part this time was that the chicken went from freezer to fridge, but wasn't yet fully defrosted.  Also, it's kinda hard to zest lemon without a zester or a grater.  I had a peeler, but that just tore off large chunks of lemon peel.  Ah well, a knife came in handy.

To accompany the lemon, I'm making some vegetable rotelli pasta salad.

Will update with the results!

Chicken

Last night I volunteered to cook dinner for my family the next day.  I had this idea to make something out of chicken breast.  Might I remind you, I'm only 21 and live in a residence hall on campus which is brand new and the first to feature a kitchen in every apartment.

I scoured my favorite food blogs and recipe sites last night, and picked out a couple of recipes I figured I could attempt.  This morning, I went down to the kitchen and found a book titled Chicken (rest of title to come later).  I flipped through the pages as I was eating breakfast, and narrowed my selection down to two.  I finalized my choice when I saw one of the recipes called for orange juice.  I've had a huge craving for citrus lately.

The chicken came out okay, but the biggest issue was that it was dry.  My mother said it's because breast is white meat, and tends to be dryer than say, the thigh, which is dark meat.  Fortunately, there was enough of the sauce it was marinating in to serve as a dip for the chicken.

We also made takoyaki and this Amish Friendship Soup my family got when they went to Lancaster, PA.