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Post by roverpup on Jan 31, 2022 11:32:49 GMT
It's just something I threw together because we had a load of fresh raspberries from our measly bushes. A chocolate mousse base, layer of fresh raspberries, whipped cream and a garnish of chopped peanuts and a square of 90% dark chocolate. (All of this was very low sugar because of Dan's diabetes)
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Post by llminnowpea on Jan 31, 2022 11:54:53 GMT
It's just something I threw together because we had a load of fresh raspberries from our measly bushes. A chocolate mousse base, layer of fresh raspberries, whipped cream and a garnish of chopped peanuts and a square of 90% dark chocolate. (All of this was very low sugar because of Dan's diabetes) This sounds dreamy! YUM!
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Post by llminnowpea on Jan 31, 2022 12:08:55 GMT
I am now 18.82% finished! I managed to stitch 3,077 stitches this past month Did you say you were an engineer? I would never have guessed! LOL!!!! I love how you're calculating your progress. <3 (is it normal to count stitches in this way?) It looks amazing so far. Thank you for posting the update. Ha! I use an app called Pattern Keeper to track the stitches. This piece has 89 colors and the eye/eyebrow alone used about a third of those, so it would have been a nightmare to use a paper copy. The app tells me the total number of stitches in the piece, the total number I have stitches, the amount I did each day and the %. I keep a spreadsheet of the number I stitch each day. This style of cross stitch is called "full coverage" because we stitch all the squares (there are very few blank spaces of just cloth). So, to keep motivated, I am part of a variety of online stitching groups that do themed challenges. For instance, one of the challenges this week is to stitch at least 100 stitches on a project that contains an item that can be ordered in a restaurant (or stitch 200 if your piece doesn't meet the theme). This piece has a teacup, so that can be ordered in a restaurant, so I will use this piece for that. Another challenge is to stitch something related to the number 7. I will probably just stitch penalty stitches for most of this week's challenges (so, I will stitch 800 stitches instead of 400). There are no prizes in these groups. We do this for fun and motivation.
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Post by llminnowpea on Jan 31, 2022 12:09:29 GMT
Oh! I forgot to mention - I LOVE all these home ec stories! Love them!
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Post by queenzod on Feb 7, 2022 12:39:24 GMT
That is so cute! It looks like a little piggie.
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Post by llminnowpea on Feb 7, 2022 13:45:34 GMT
I love it! It is so cute!
You have crafty skills. Are day-to-day crafts just something you aren't interested in in general (to do, I mean)?
Sock Madness 16 sign ups started February 1 and that means 2 months where I frantically knit socks and get nothing else done. Haha. I have no hope of winning. And, I rarely ever get past Round 2, so....
See, Sock Madness is an international sock knitting "competition" where participants are placed on teams and each round only a certain number move forward to the next round. The first few rounds are 2 weeks long. Then each round gets shorter and shorter until the last round (made up of 20-ish competitors) is finished in 24 hours. Yes, people knit all night long to finish a pair of complex socks. Not me, though. My hands can't take it.
It is a great way to learn new skills and meet people from all over. It can be very stressful for some people, though, especially newbies (who hope they will win, but they really have no chance, haha, so should just have fun).
We are doing a warm-up round of stranded, toe up socks and I have happened to have chosen a set of colors that remind me of a darker version of that yellow photo shoot of BC's, which makes me laugh every time I pick up the socks to knit them. I will try to get a halfway decent photo today and post it on IG.
I am also trying to keep up with my cross stitching goals, so this all means spending less time on the internet, which is fine, since I can't take all this awards stress. Better for me to check in when it is all over!
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Post by mllemass on Feb 7, 2022 15:57:56 GMT
That reminds me - we have a tool bench at my house that my father built when we moved in, and he put his own tools on it. One day when he was over, I asked him what one weird-looking tool was for. It has kind of a wheel with different sizes of pointy spikes. He said it was a hole punch for leather. I didn’t know such a thing even existed! It’s been so helpful to transform belts and watch straps and buckles on sandals and shoes. It’s so much better than using a pointy scissors or a nail and hammer to put new holes in leather!
Which brings me to a helpful hint for those of you who have lots of purses like I do. I have purses in every colour for every occasion, but since the pandemic I have no occasions! I just want something practical to hold my usual essentials plus hand sanitizer and face masks. And I also prefer purses I can transform to cross-body for when I’m carrying stuff. Not many purses do that, though. I had to discard a couple of purses a few weeks ago when I saw that the vinyl finish was peeling. I first experienced this peeling when I went to TIFF in September. I discovered that the patent “leather” finish on my purse was reacting to the hand sanitizer on hands. Even if I wanted to keep using the peeling purse, it continued falling apart and left a mess everywhere. Before throwing out the purses, I removed the long shoulder straps. Fortunately, most of them had removable straps. I now have several shoulder straps in different colours, and I can turn almost any regular purse into a cross-body purse by attaching one of those straps. And it doesn’t even matter if a black purse has a yellow strap! I also have a small collection of messenger/computer bags with corporate logos that I was given at work over many years, and I will never use them! But their sturdy woven straps are very useful and will never all apart due to hand sanitizer.
I don’t even have to be discarding a purse in order to use its strap. I can just borrow a strap from one purse to put onto another for a last-minute cross-body bag.
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Post by mllemass on Feb 7, 2022 16:44:54 GMT
You would already know if your bag was peeling - you’d be leaving bits of it behind every time you nicked it up.
Actual, real leather is very durable and doesn’t seem to react to hand sanitizer. My car seats and steering wheel are covered in leather, and they’re fine. So is my wallet. It’s the fake leather that’s a problem. But real leather purses and shoes are hard to find these days.
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Post by mllemass on Feb 13, 2022 3:21:00 GMT
I’ve always been a crafty person, lol, so I’ll have a go here. Mostly threadwork. I’ve cross stitched a lot, and quilted, sewed clothes when I was young when it was cheaper to make your own clothes than buy them (those were the days!), but mostly I’ve been a lacemaker. My grandma taught me how to tat when I was about 10 and then when I got older I took up needlelace and tried to enjoy bobbin lace, but all those threads at once just make me nervous! So I stuck to needlelace. I got fairly proficient, taught a few classes. I also collect antique lace and have piles of it around (well, actually, carefully archived in acid free tissue & boxes). So if any of you need help identifying a piece of lace you got from your Aunt Carol, post a pic and I’ll tell you what you got! For a number of years I was president of our local Lace Guild which was gobs of fun. I chaired an international lace convention back in 2005 which was a blast! We had hundreds of lacemakers and teachers from all over the planet come to Denver for a week of classes, other fun things, and an enormous vendor room where you could buy books, supplies, and lace. It took me 2 years to put it together and it was wildly successful so. Still feel really good about that! I still tat a bit but my eyes are getting worse so it’s hard. Also, my hands usually have this iPad stuck in them so it’s hard to do both, lol. I just watched a Hallmark movie that made me think of you! It was the second movie in The Wedding Veil trilogy. This one was called The Wedding Veil Unveiled. It’s set in Italy, mostly in and around Venice, and the leading man’s family has been making lace for generations - so there’s a lot of lace talk and even making lace by hand. You can decide how accurate the lace stuff is when(if) you watch it. I also couldn’t help but think of House of Gucci while watching this. They had actual Italians in this, though! And even though it makes no sense to show Italians speaking English to each other, at least their Italian accents are natural and authentic, and they do often slip back into speaking only Italian. They also have a couple of scenes in Verona, where I’ve been, and they visit Juliet’s house. The movie made it all romantic-looking as they strolled into the courtyard to look up at Juliet’s balcony. In reality, that courtyard would be packed with tourists waiting for their turn to photograph the balcony. It was a beautiful city!
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Post by queenzod on Feb 13, 2022 4:19:03 GMT
I’ll keep an eye out for it, mllemass. Lace making began in Italy and they make the BEST lace. I have some that’s 14th century and some of my most treasured lace. Really incredible stuff that can’t be made anymore because the flax they grew to spin their linen thread doesn’t exist anymore. Thanks for letting me know! 🤗
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