Happy Solstice!

It doesn't really feel like winter solstice here, it's supposed to reach 80 degrees today, but we are celebrating anyway.

DH made Alton Brown's Free Range Fruitcake Recipe. For the past two weeks, he has lovingly cared for the cake, spritzing it with brandy every couple days.



This morning, the fruitcake was sliced and served.



DH isn't normally a big fan of fruitcake, because he doesn't like the brightly colored candied cherries. The Edward Gorey Holiday card that Ula sent us, sums up his feelings pretty well.



This fruitcake, though, has only natural dried fruit and he really likes it. He said it was like a homemade Cliff Bar.


One of my contributions to today's festivities was Steam Piggy.

For more than a year, Blaze has been saving all monetary gifts, because he wants to buy a Victrola. Last Summer, while DH and I were both out of work, I borrowed most of that money and it has taken me until now to pay him back. The idea behind Steam Piggy, was the thought that by this time, Blaze probably thought he'd be paid back "when pigs fly", so Steam Piggy is the newest member of Blaze's airship crew.

He is really a chalkboard piggy bank from Target. The goggles were made from two of the plastic compasses left over from Blaze's 10th birthday party. I used the Dremel to cut the back out of each compass. The goggle strap is a leather belt from a resale store. Everything is put together and attached to the piggy bank with Super Glue Gel.





Since it is such a beautiful day, we had lunch out at the picnic table. Steamed buns filled with teriyaki chicken and ginger ale with star shaped ice cubes made from orange juice and cranberry juice.

First Day of Summer: Exploring Inner-City Nature

I may have mentioned this before, but, Gainesville has an impressive amount of "green space" inside the city. This may be because much of it is swamp and therefore can't be developed, but never-the-less, it is nice to have all these little pockets of nature all around us.

Blaze had an appointment at prosthetics this morning to adjust the leg brace and stop it from squeaking, then both speech and physical therapy this afternoon, but we still found time to enjoy the first day of summer in nature, without ever leaving the city.









The inexplicable structure made of white doors, out in the woods.







It was 100 degrees today, so after the last therapy, Blaze and I went in search of a cool creek to play in. The water level was pretty low, because we are in desperate need of rain, but it was still fun to wade around, looking at tiny fish.







The troll under the bridge:



Happy Summer everyone!

The Winter Solstice Lunar Eclipse

The full moon on Dec. 20th at 6:10 p.m. EST:



The eclipse has begun, 1:35 a.m. EST



Hey, besides being the Winter Solstice and the day of a lunar eclipse, today is also a palindrome, 12-21.

O.K., back to bed for another little cat nap.

3:30 a.m.

Blaze told me to wake him up for this part, so I tried, but he told me it was too bright outside and he had been having a good dream, and promptly went back to sleep.

The fully eclipsed moon:



This was the hardest phase to photograph. I don't have a tripod, and I had a very difficult time holding the camera steady, so that the moon didn't appear to be bouncing.

When the girls were little (and we lived much closer to nature, so the darkest part of the year really meant something), I started the tradition of giving them something related to light or the sun on the Winter Solstice each year. The solar powered keychain that played "You are My Sunshine" was a mistake, but other than that, it's a good tradition. I am continuing it this year with the gift that Blaze will get when he wakes up in the morning.



We will be spending an awful lot of the holiday break in the car and I'm hoping that this, along with over 5 hours of Magic Tree House audio books on the Ipod, will keep him entertained.

Back to bed. There are still a couple hours until dawn.

Lemon Cupcakes

I used this recipe to make half of the cupcakes for Blaze's birthday party. Last night, I used it again, to bake a treat for our moon watching.

2 cups unbleached white flour

1 cup sugar

3/4 tsp. baking soda

1/2 tsp. salt

1/2 cup milk

1/2 cup vegetable oil

2 eggs, well beaten

the juice and grated peel from one lemon


preheat oven to 350 degrees F.

Mix all the dry ingredients together. In a two cup glass measuring cup, combine the liquid ingredients and beat with a fork until the eggs are well beaten and everything is blended. Add the liquids to the flour mixture and stir until smooth. Fill greased muffin cups 3/4 full and bake 30 minutes.

Cool before frosting.

Lemon frosting

1/2 cup ( one stick) butter, softened

the juice and grated peel of one lemon

1 tablespoon milk

3 1/2 cups of powdered sugar ( add a little more it needed, it really depends on how much juice the lemon yields)

Beat everything together with an electric mixer, until it becomes a smooth, fluffy frosting.

Candles A-Glow

There is an excitement that comes from the very brief pleasure of watching real candles glowing on a Christmas tree. Tonight was the first time that Blaze was able to experience that.

Lunar Eclipse

I just found out that in the wee hours of the morning of the 21st., there will be a lunar eclipse. More information can be found here:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/December_2010_lunar_eclipse

Ice Candles / Happy Solstice

Happy Winter Solstice!



December 21st. is the shortest day of the year, so it's a great time to make some wintery looking candles to give light and warmth.



The storage locker was not kind to my candy cane striped candles this year. When I took them out of the box this morning, every single one was cracked.



I had been wanting wax to make ice candle, so instead of buying any, I just used a pocket knife to peel off all of the red and white stripes from the outside of the candles, and then melted them down.

An old juice can made a fine disposable top level for a double boiler.

I had been saving various sizes of wax coated cardboard cartons ( from eggnog, milk, and half and half) for this purpose. Those were the candle molds. For a round pillar candle, the containers from frozen concentrated juices work well.



A wick was tied to a popcycle stick, which rested on the lip of the open carton, and small ice cubes and crushed ice were dropped into the carton until it was full. The melted wax was then poured in on top of the ice, covering the ice completely.

The carton was set aside for about an hour and then the cardboard carton was ripped and peeled off to reveal the candle (be sure to do this over a sink, because the water from the melted ice will come gushing out).



The candles were left in the sink for another couple of hours to melt more and dry out.

I displayed ours on a wood tray that had been painted silver. After the candles were placed on the tray, I covered the tray with clear marbles, because they reminded me of ice, and I like the way they reflect the candle light.

I made a lot of ice candles when I was a teenager and I've always enjoyed the unique, freeform way they turn out. Like snowflakes, no two ice candles are ever alike.

Happy Summer Solstice!

Blaze sifting sand so we could make sand-dough for an indoor sand castle that will go on our summer nature table:



Indoor Sand Castle

3 Cups of Sand

1 1/2 Cups corn starch

1 Tablespoon cream of tartar

1 Cup water

1. Mix the sand, corn starch, cream of tartar, and water in an old pot.

2. Cook mixture over low heat, stirring constantly.

3. When it is thick, remove it from the heat. Allow the mixture to cool.

4. Mold the sand-dough into desired shapes. I used a bottle to roll it out flat (I didn't want the sand to damage my rolling pin), and then shaped the tower using the bottle as a mold.



5. Leave to air dry. Any loose sand can be removed with sandpaper after the castle is fully dry.




The sand castles make great votive candle holders.

Happy Winter Solstice!

There are a few more little touches I want to add to the footboard of Blaze's bed, but for now it is finished. It was supposed to be a birthday gift for Blaze, but now it's his Solstice gift, because it's 15 days late. At least it's finished before we leave to go visit family for Christmas.

It was too big to keep it a secret from Blaze, so instead he got to help build it. He really likes sanding.

You can tell we've been working on this for awhile, because of the change of hair style.






AND NOW,


THE GRAND UNVEILING:











The beautiful (and shiny) airship picture is a print of a painting by Myke Amend , titled "The Rescue".

Sewing Skirts Without a Pattern

For many years now, I have been sewing full skirts with elastic waist bands, without using a pattern. They have three tiers of fabric, each twice as much as the one before. They also last for many years. This skirt, which was hand-sewn back in the days of living in a van while tree planting in North Carolina, has held up remarkably well. The elastic now needs to be replaced, but that will be about a 20 minute repair job. The fabric is still perfect.

Here is a picture of the skirt, taken just yesterday:


Here is a picture of me wearing the skirt on the Winter Solstice in 1994, while holding the rope attached to the sun shaped pinata the girls and I had made, while little 3 year old Nika took her turn trying to hit it:


Not all of the skirts were made with just one fabric. This one has a different, complimentary print for each layer:



The instructions to make these are really quite easy. The top layer is two yards of fabric, 15 1/4 inches wide. The second layer is then 4 yards of fabric, 12 inches wide, and the third layer is 8 yards of fabric, 12 inches wide. The second and third layers are both hand-basted at the top edge in order to gather them and the pinned onto the bottom edge of the previous layer (right sides together) before sewing. The extra material in the top layer is because of the waistband. The top edge is first ironed down a 1/4 inch and then ironed down an additional 3 inches. The elastic casing is formed by sewing around the casing one inch from the top edge, leaving a gap of a couple inches. Next, sew another row of stitched 2 inches from the top, leaving the same gap, and sew a third row of stitches along the bottom edge of the folded material.



Cut three pieces of 1/4 inch elastic the same size as your waist. Start with the casing closest to the top of the waistband. Thread the elastic through the casing using a safety pin attached to the end of the elastic to help guide and pull it through the casing. Over-lap the ends of the elastic by an inch or inch and a half and sew the ends together. Pull out on the waistband to be sure that the elastic is properly in place. Then, sew up the 2 inch gap in the row of stitches that form each section of the casing.

To hem the shirt, iron the bottom edge over by a half inch and then fold that half inch over and iron again. Sew in place.

Two days ago I finished a new variation on this skirt. I made a patchwork skirt out of flannel for winter. It's a bit different. The patches in the first row are 9 inches by 13 1/4 inches. The patches in all the other rows are 9 inches by 10 inches. There are two rows that are 10 patches long, but the second row is covered by a 20 patch ruffle. Then there are two more rows that are 20 patches each, sewn to the second 10 patch piece. I also added tea-dyed cotton lace to the bottom edge of the ruffle and the hem. I had perfect timing, because cooler weather arrived yesterday.