A year in the life: 2014 retrospective

...sort of. I was going to do Gillian's 5 things roundup, but then I decided to steal Oonaballoona's collage idea and grey out the makes that didn't work out so well. And then I thought: since this blog isn't just about the stuff I make, usually, why not do an entire year in review? I've done some fun stuff this year, and I haven't gotten around to blogging it all yet, but this would be a good way of remembering where I went and what I did.

So that's what you're getting, with some reflections along the way, minus the pancakes. You can see all my makes at Crazy Stuff I Do; most of the event posts are In Progress^TM.

The biggest thing to celebrate is a year a successful cohabitation with the DC! I'm still not sure what I did to deserve him, and I'm very excited to announce that Lucy has stopped hissing at him. Plus? He brings me tea and does the dishes. Often. And unasked. He's all-around awesome and I'm a lucky lady.

Ahem. On with the remembrances. Do you need me to tell you it's probably going to be a long post?

Pancake of the Month Bonus #2: Coconut

Apologies for spamming you with blog posts, but I've been on a bit of pancake rampage. A panckage, if you will. I guess I'm trying to catch up on lost flapjack time.


I love coconut. I've had a recipe for coconut waffles for years (but no waffle maker with which to make them), and I don't know why it's taken me so long to look around for a pancake version. This recipe from She Wears Many Hats was dangled in front of me on Pinterest, so I queued it up for this week.

The result?

Summer wrap-up. Yes, you read that right.

No, I haven't adopted southern hemisphere timing. You may have noticed I never did a review of my extraordinarily ambitious summer sewing plans. Hem.

Abstract: I had 16 18 16 projects planned, along with umpteen UFOs PIPs UFOs^* to finish, as well as a few pieces of jewellery I wanted to make. Long story short: I finished none of the UFOs or made any jewellery. I did finish 9 sewing projects, on deadline for the most part, with an additional 2 that have fallen into PIP territory, so that's not too bad. Here's the rundown:

1. Various Belcarra blouses. Done. All four deadlines met, too.
   
   I'm super pleased with most of my Belcarras, although I still have to redo the neckline of the horizontal one and put ribbons in them so I can tell back from front. I wore them for One Pattern, One Week. I'm fairly certain there will be more of these in my future.
   

Pancake of the Month bonus #1: Apple Cider

So, I'm off this week and have plenty of time to finish writing up on old blog posts, tidying up the apartment, catching up on vlogs, finishing some UFOs (if I say it, it will be true, right?), reading, marking, and making pancakes. As you may have noticed, I haven't been keeping up with my PotM posts, mostly because I haven't made pancakes this fall. I really got wiped out with that bug. BUT I will be making up for it this week. And it turns out there's going to be a bit of a theme: packages made with beverages.

Blame Pinterest, again. You may recall I've been trying to find an apple pancake recipe, but have not met with much success. When the words "apple cider pancake" showed up on my screen, I thought "Perhaps this will be the solution to my apple pancake problems."

There are a few recipes for apple cider pancakes out there. I used this one from Sincerely, Kinsey (mostly because I really like the name of her blog). I was a bit concerned about the 1 tbsp of cinnamon, because I was using wassail (which I make every year from this recipe by A Year of Slow Cooking) which is made with cinnamon sticks -- this could be a very cinnamon-heavy flapjack. Also, I knew that 3.5 tsp of baking powder was going to make for a very thick batter. Which means that flapjack is not a term that could apply.^*

The result?

Pancake of the Month: Eggnog (with eggnog syrup)

Oh dear. I've joined Pinterest.

I've been avoiding it because I know what a potential time-suck it is and I am very afraid of never coming up for air, but I finally caved because I wanted a place to store lesson ideas and education articles and other math stuff and bookmarking wasn't cutting it. I'm aem2 if you want to creep my physics simulations boards.


Anyway, as I was perusing recipes (it has to do with fluid dynamics, honest) I stumbled, as one does, upon several holiday pancake recipes, including this one from High Heels and Grills for not only eggnoggy pancakes, but syrup too. I should say that while I like the taste of eggnog, I can't drink more than a shot at a time because it's just too... something. Thick-tasting, I guess? However, in the spirit of the season, I naturally had to test these recipes out. For Science.


Result?

Tea makes it go

One of the gifts I gave the DC^* for Christmas was a low-temperature Stirling engine kit that, much like us, runs off a cup of tea. I helped him put it together yesterday, and I have to say it's quite a bit niftier than the full model would be. All we need now is a case to keep it dust-free when not in use.

Truth in advertising: it did take much less than an hour to put together, and it works a treat. I like how they've set it up so you use the foam packing case to help assemble it. Also, you need a mug. Which you can then fill with tea to make the engine run.


Those mugs were also a gift. There's a bicycle on the front. The DC wanted to keep the engine going longer, but the problem is that it was my tea and I wanted to drink it. We need to think on this a bit more...

^*And me, but mostly the DC.

Still alive

The observant among you will have noticed that school and illness and various other things have kept me from blogging. But I have been doing some stuff that I will blog and post in a timey-wimey fashion once I'm on break in two weeks. In the meantime, I'll just leave you with this little momento of what I did last Thursday...