Squid A Month Club (October Anatomy)

One of the Squid a Months for October. The description I had to go on was "anatomy"

Erin has been preparing for her latest school report all week. She just put the finishing touches on her skeleton suit and is now practicing her report in front of the mirror. She's pretty confident on explaining blood flow without her notes but she still needs to work on being able to identify all of the veins in her illustration.

Report cards

A five part series of a journalist/historian tracking down the owners of old report cards he found marked for trash. Most of the ones discussed are from a sewing trade school from the 1920s. It's pretty amazing seeing what became of these people and experiencing their timeline. My favorite story is the one of Mary Meyer.

I feel like my report cards would be rather boring compared to the trade school report cards. I don't even remember much about mine except I always thought it was crap that my gym grade always pulled down my GPA. Except for that glorious year I was in the Band gym class with Mr. Spangler. Just a bunch of fellow woodwinders and percussionists playing floor hockey and capture the flag in the most non-judgmental high school period ever experienced.

Fall Photo Dump

I've been really excited to not only have a front (and back!) porch to decorate but a cozy little apartment that has working heat. We even have hot water in the bathroom sink. It's so amazing to wash your face in the morning and not freeze. My flowers aren't dying inside and all of our vents are blowing out hot air instead of cold. I have not experienced this in 5 years and it is glorious. And now: FALL!

The Vanilla Experiment

I decided to start making my own vanilla after I had used up the last of my imitation vanilla. Mainly I did it for fun and to see how it would taste. I never bought the actual vanilla in stores because it's so expensive but I've had it in baked goods and I at least could tell a difference. I bought a 750ml bottle of vodka and 15 vanilla beans online for a little under $20. There are some differences in flavor for different beans. I got Madagascar beans because they are supposed to have more of a straight up vanilla flavor. You can also try different alcohols for different flavors. I stuck with vodka since it doesn't really add anything to the beans. Usually when I try something out I like to do the basic of all recipes to see if it's something I like to begin with.

Once I got the beans and the booze I set to work. I opened the bottle, popped in the beans and gave it a shake. It needs to be kept in a dark place so I put the bottle in a paper bag and placed it in the back of my pantry with my vinegar/lemon cleaner. A couple times a week I gave both of them a shake. It was pretty awesome watching the transition.

Day one.

3 months.

5 months.

Recipes vary on how long it takes to make the vanilla but a few months is usually the consensus. Most people say they keep a few beans in the jar and just add fresh beans and alcohol to keep it topped off. It of course keeps pretty much indefinitely. As a bonus you can take your used beans, split them and add them to sugar to make vanilla sugar. I haven't tried this yet but I'll probably get around to it later this week. There are also a crazy amount of other ways to use these beans afterwards in recipes.
I tried out my vanilla in some baked goods and I have to say it was quite better than the imitation vanilla. My friend Erin decided to make her own vanilla a little before I did and we decided to trade. I forgot what type of beans she used but she used bourbon for the alcohol.

Erin's bourbon vanilla

Her vanilla has a slightly different hue than mine and the bourbon vanilla was better in chocolate items (especially brownies) while mine was good for items like vanilla cake or lighter baked goods. All in all I think it was worth it for me to spend the money and time on this. Although it is more expensive in the start I think it does end up beating imitation in the long run for me. Mainly because I bake and cook a good chunk of our food. It lasts longer, can be replenished and the beans can be used for so many other things. Plus it's always rad to have various jars in your kitchen in different stages of transformation. Makes me feel like I have a lab.

Dad Got a Trail Cam

My dad got a trail cam. He then propped up an old stump and added some cracked corn and some apples that he got while drilling near an orchard. All of this is in the far side yard, past the field and near the grove of pine trees. Sometimes he walks up after dinner to throw out leftovers. He has been sending me photos of what creatures have passed by. I'm posting a few highlights here but you should check here to see the full album. It will not disappoint. 

I was pretty impressed with the quality of the photos and it was just really amazing to see the property that I spent so much time exploring in a different light. I just love all of the quick little "snapshots" of my home. It was also great seeing all of the animals that hang around our house, most of them I've seen quite often but 2 in particular were surprising. The black vultures and the black squirrel (they're at the link). Black vultures just recently started coming back to our part of the state and my Dad had never seen them around there before which is pretty exciting. The black squirrels have also started to appear lately. My dad hadn't seen one of them since the late 70's and the one on the camera is the second one he's seen this year.

A murder of crows

little buck

gray squirrel in the fog

Racoons. The two on the right are fighting over some chicken skin.

Little bear.

The Internets

Some lovely things I've seen this week.

Sundries and Plunder

Seeing these yet again brought up one of the issues with wearing glasses. I would love nothing more than to wear these (or any of the other awesome masks they make) to a fancy Halloween party/dinner. We could make hooves to go with them.

Oh and those ribbons! Oh my goodness!

little goodall

A friend sent me the link to this shop mentioning that this was going on the list of "things to buy when you have children". There is a gray fox as well. My goal is to have twins and buy one of each and then let them loose in the woods. I will occasionally squee when one of the fox children runs past. Since I received this link I have watched this woman be interviewed on etsy's front page and now place her shop on vacation to get caught up on orders. It made me so happy to see this. I love seeing people who are making original, well made and beautiful designs get rewarded for their talent by being able to make even more of the things that they love.

just oh my word, the craftsmanship. And those claw sleeves just kill me.

matilde beldroega

I saw this little fella the other morning and I want him so badly. I love the design on the goat in particular and holy crap that little cloak he's wearing! I also love the faces of the dolls she makes. Barely any stitches used but still expressive. I especially enjoyed the little smirk on the girl below.

She even makes the shoes!

Thursday's Accessory

Cats in hoop waiting to be sewn into miniature dishtowels.