Schedule Change

Hello Everyone! Hope all is moving along and tolerable. Planet Nice Crafts continues to strive to be an antidote to life’s burdens – at the moment, slightly different interests are being pursued to accommodate a new work schedule that only allows an hour or two each week for creative activities requiring full energy. As mentioned at the end of the last post, reading is the interest that has grown in dedicated time.

Since last time, the second volume of the fantasy soap opera A Clash of Kings by George RR Martin was completed. Now that I am oriented to Westeros and Essos and the players – it is becoming easier to read and cutting myself off after my daily reading goal of 20 pages helps too. The characters are so richly written that you do become emotionally attached to them, akin to a feeling of familiarity to your favorite dysfunctional family. The unfortunate thing of reading such a lengthy book is that by the time I reach the end, I can’t recall what occurred in the first chapters.

I have decided to take a break from the series to diversify authors and topics. I started Old in Art School – A Memoir by Nell Painter about the author pursuing a professional art career in her 60s after top notch success in a completely different field (Academic History). As typical of non-fiction and me, not a smooth read at the beginning compared to the fantasy soap opera but it is getting better. Ms. Painter went for a high level of training in art (Masters of Fine Art), however, I identified with some of her stories from my recent adventure of taking classes including art at the College of Lake County. I really hope my enthusiasm for reading continues as I have an ongoing list of topics I would like to pursue and share here.

The weather has been warm and dry so there has been notable garden activity. I was gifted a bit of garlic last Fall for the plot and it has emerged after our quite short Illinois winter.

It will be ready to harvest in the August/September timeframe. I also planted some strawberries that were doomed to be tilled over in a few weeks. I was told long ago that strawberries are the most pesticide laden fruit so buying organic is well worth it. I have no idea what kind of strawberries these are – I am just hoping to be amused. I also put in some poppy seeds for the Spring/Summer – one plant managed to emerge already from last year’s seeds.

Of course when I was putting the new seed in, it was quite windy so distribution was poor and unfortunately the seedlings do not transplant. Hopefully, despite the challenges, some of the seeds got to the right place.

A new type of pie was attempted since I last posted. The recipe was for a Caramel Apple Cider Pie but I modified it to suit my mood and energy level. I started with a homemade crust with half oat flour and half regular all-purpose flour. It called for a bit of apple cider vinegar but I just wanted to finish my ancient bottle of the stuff so it had about double the amount than the recipe called for. The third part of the recipe was the caramel syrup but I was already really tired by that point so I skipped it. Instead of the caramel, I used caramel ice cream. Alone the pie was really tart, but the ice cream provided a fantastic contrast. 

The last bit of the update is the earring box. Progress has been really slow due to lack of time. I did manage to cut a fabric piece for the top and devised a plan to decorate it with embroidery. I don’t remember the last time I brought out the embroidery hoop.

My inspiration for the embroidery was a feature called Tactile Textiles in March 2015’s Martha Stewart Living, assigned and produced by Andie Diemer.

I have only managed to work one thread so far but here is my progress picture.

I know it doesn’t look like much but once more threads are added and I get better at it, I think it will be more appealing. I shot a short video of me with a needle and thread. Not exciting either, but a start.

Well, that’s about it here. I will post when I can. Enjoy this beautiful weather. Happy reading, sewing, gardening, or any other activity that you look forward to!