January Roundup

Favorite new recipe:

Carrot and Turnip Bake. Not the most attractive, but actually very hearty and satisfying.

Slow cooker Chicken Tikka Masala. Freaking delicious.

What I made:

A basket to use up 2 spools of cording I didn't like. Fortunately, Demon likes it a lot.

Prefab wooden boxes that I finished and gave to Alyssa for birthday.

Just a little crocheted dice bag.

This table was a pretty simple project, but I was just figuring it out as I went along. The table top is a piece broken off from an IKEA table--particle board with a veneer of some kind. The legs were unfinished from Home Depot. It was fun to experiment with finishing the wood. I sanded them and used brown wax as a stain, then followed with a beeswax and oil wood conditioner. The legs are some very white colored wood and I really like how they look now.

Not drawn from scratch; just a coloring book page.

Wood boxes from thrift stores, refinished via sanding & staining, with magnet closures put in.

December Roundup.

What movies, television shows, plays, etc. did I watch this month?
Movies: Fantastic Beasts & Where to Find Them
TV: Royal Pains, NCIS, Star Trek Voyager, The Innocents


Where did I eat out this month?
Ordered from a Vietnamese place, but I don't remember its name. 
Panda Express, Domino's, Costa Vida, Zupas Cafe

What fun things did I do with my family and/or friends?
Christmas was cool

What gifts did I give and/or receive?
Gifts from me:
Birthday gifts: Pokemon walkie talkies for Fox, and dinosaur skeleton building kits for Deirdre.
Christmas gifts: For Parry (to share with me), a set of laser tag guns. Plane toys for Deirdre. Large baskets for Kristan & Jake. Toy bunny for Reyna. Stocking gifts: for sisters were jewelry and hair clips, light-up toy cars for Fox, unicorn keychain for Deirdre, little stamp set for Reyna, Magic: The Gathering cards for Jake and Ben, socks for my mom, a usb charging hub for my dad. 

Gifts to me: uh geez, I should have written this down on Christmas. I got a lot of foodstuffs, a variety of candies and specialty ingredients. Some kitchen stuff: Handpie/empanada dough press, ice cube tray, dish drying mat, kitchen towel, a couple recipe books, reusable snack bag. Parry did a whole slew of upgrading my computers, buying a new phone, and helping buy a car. I got a cool heated salt bowl/lamp with salt balls for massage. Body stuff: Vintage style lipstick, nail polish, bath salts, hot/ice pack. Toys and treats for the furballs.

What special or unusual purchases did I make?
I bought a car! And this one doesn't suck.

What were my accomplishments this month?
I bought a car!

Firsts: First large snowfall of the season. Sent me into a bad depression for the day. I was already feeling empty, but then the snow added the pressure of being cold and wet, bad driving conditions, and having to shovel it. It just tipped me over the edge. Fortunately, the depression from that snowstorm only lasted a day.
First time getting a loan, turned out manageable.

What I made:

Sock bunny made for Reyna

A simple, but happy project. Wood plates I got about 10 years ago, they were very rough and the finish was chipping and flaking. Probably polyurethane plus a dark stain. I sanded all that off and did a nice coating of oil/beeswax conditioner. These plates are so nice now, smooth, pretty and foodsafe.