The Struggle and Eventual Success in Getting to York

3 October 2013

Once again this isn’t a craft based blog post.  Very sorry about that but I just haven’t had the time to dedicate to crocheting.  For this past week or so I have been running around like a chicken with my head cut off in preparation for leaving for and arriving to York, England.  When the fated morning of my departure did in fact arrive I was scrambling to finish everything.  Somehow my bags squeaked underweight by a mere pound but they had not been checked all the way through to Manchester.  That meant I would have to pick them up in JFK before re-checking them again and waste the time I was planning to use in the fancy Delta Sky Lounge, which my parents had graciously gotten me a day pass to. 

With a lot of finagling the lady at the check-in desk got the bags on one ticket straight through to my destination of Manchester.  I thought all would be well but there was a feeling in the pit of my stomach that something would go wrong.  And of course it did.  The flights themselves weren’t horrible just incredibly long and uneventful.  I couldn’t sleep on the overnight trans-Atlantic flight so I was miserably beat when I boarded the final plane from London to Manchester.  It was a simple 30 minute flight, but it took about 30 minutes to taxi and take off.  That is one thing I have learned about the London Heathrow Airport, the taxi-ing takes FOREVER!

But all went well with the flight and I de-planed and headed straight for the baggage claim, and waited for my bags to arrive.  I waited and waited and waited until there wasn’t anyone else left and nothing but a single suitcase remained on the endlessly looping conveyor belt and it wasn’t either of my two large duffle bags.  Trying to quell the rising panic and fear I calmly walked over to the baggage services desk and reported my problem.  The kind man there told me it was most likely left in London and should be at my address by the evening.  Relieved I left the airport and took the 2 hour bus ride to York, uneasy but optimistic. 

I arrived to the university and went through the check-in process before arriving at my room, rather large for a dorm style room.  I have more than enough space for my things and clothes, but I had no clothes or things to fill the room with.  Later on in the evening I borrowed a friend’s phone (since I hadn’t yet purchased a sim card and thus didn’t have a phone number or carrier) and called the baggage services number to get an update on my bags since I wanted to head out and get something to eat but didn’t want to miss my bags being dropped off.  The lady on the other end of the phone noted that there hadn’t been an update to the location of my bags and thus they wouldn’t be arriving that day or perhaps the next day either.

That is when the real panic set in.  I had no other clothes or toiletries to my name and felt the world was crumbling around me.  I tried to stay calm and went out with some new friends to a pub for dinner.  A large problem that made itself known the next day was the fact that my course (Bioarchaeology) department had organized a field trip/hike for the following day, Sunday.  Luckily I had received a free t-shirt that I could wear but alas that was the only new piece of clothing I had.  Oddly enough stores close quite early in the evening and thus I had been unable to get some of the basics I so desperately needed.  Thankfully there were some kind and generous people in the house that lent me shampoo, conditioner and the like.

The happy ending to this story comes the following day, Monday, when my bags did indeed finally arrive.  But of course that wasn’t without difficulties.  My mother had confirmed with the company (since I still didn’t have a phone number) that I would receive an email with the delivery time of my bags sometime between 9-10 in the morning.  So I woke up bright and early, not wanting to miss such an important email.  But I never got an email, instead I happened to check their website for an update at around noon since I had yet to receive anything from them.  The update stated that the bags would be arriving at the house sometime around 3:20 in the afternoon.

Needless to say I was annoyed.  I had been up and waiting since 9 am.  With the new information though I was able to go to campus and get a few things done before heading back to be at the house by about 3 in the afternoon.  I wanted to be there early in case the bags came early.  But once again I waited for about 2 hours before contacting my mother, who called to get an update.  It was then determined that they had gotten stuck in traffic and should be at my house within the hour.  Well fast forward another 2 hours and the van finally arrived with my bags.  I graciously signed for them and with the help of my friend Katie, hauled them upstairs to the third floor where my room resides.

MY BAGS!!!

It has now been about two days since my bags came and I have finally been able to settle into my room, with my things and clothes, and start to feel at home in this foreign city.  

View from the door

Opposite wall

 Now I just need to steel myself for the intense year of study that is about to begin.  Yet another test of my abilities, both academically and personally.  Though I think I can get used to all the amazing architecture and history of this city of the ages.

Until next time!

Brittani

Pump It Up! Pump-Kin Up!

21 September 2013

Sorry for the single blog post this week.  It has been a jam-packed and busy week with little time to do my side projects.  As it stands now I am 6 days away from leaving and one week from today I will be in York, England settling in to my new living quarters and exploring the town, albeit extremely jet-lagged.  And even though I am leaving in only a short week I have yet to actually get my bags packed.  They lie there in my closet, taunting me with their emptiness.  For whatever reason I have yet to build the proper motivation for packing, that in addition to a sudden and large influx of freelance writing with quick turnaround times and attempting to see all my friends at least once more and the time just flies away.

Old Castle in York

And then there is the four legs of travel to commence my adventure in York.  Not at all a thrilling time, it should prove to be an interesting post for my next turn at posting. 

But enough about that, let’s talk about something crafty, or really bake-y.  A week or two ago Kellie and I got together to make our signature baked good: Mini Pumpkin Loaves.  They never disappoint and really are not that difficult to make at all.  This is especially true because Kellie and I often have to be resourceful with our ingredients as well as our kitchen equipment.  This time around we had the ingredients as we needed them, but not kitchen equipment we had intended.  Regardless they turned out great.

This doesn't include the softened butter
and also has white sugar, which you don't need

 First off gather the ingredients…

1 (15 ounce) can pumpkin puree

4 eggs

1 cup vegetable oil

2/3 cup water

3 cups brown sugar (we originally had it at a straight half and half with regular sugar and brown sugar, but later we decided that all brown sugar would be better)

3 1/2 cups all-purpose flour

2 teaspoons baking soda

1 1/2 teaspoons salt

1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

1 teaspoon ground nutmeg

1/2 teaspoon ground cloves

1/4 teaspoon ground ginger

1/4 teaspoon allspice

1/2 cup of softened butter

After gathering the ingredients preheat your oven to 350 degrees F or 175 degrees C.  Start by combining, in a large bowl (or pot if you don’t have a large bowl…) the pumpkin puree, eggs, oil, water and sugar until it is well blended.  You can do this with a fancy blender, or if you don’t have one of those (like we didn’t) you can simple stir it with a sturdy spoon.  Don’t worry if there are lumps of sugar, all will be well in the end. 

Now if you have the bowls to spare you can mix the dry ingredients together, otherwise you can just add it to the wet mixture in one go (as we did).  So add together the flour, baking soda, salt, cinnamon, nutmeg, cloves, ginger and allspice, either in a bowl or straight into the pumpkin mixture.  Mix as well as you can, again there might be lumps depending on if you use a blender or not.

The greasing and flouring of the loaf pans can either be done before, after or during the mixing of the batter.  You use the softened butter and a paper towel to rub the butter into the crevices and edges of the loaf pans.  It is important that you get it as lubed up as possible.  Then, using a little extra flour you move the pan around until the entire inside is covered in a light dusting of flour.  Dump out or reserve the excess flour and set aside.

In progress

All greased and floured up

Then you must fill the loaf pans, about 2/3 to 3/4 of the way full.  Try not to spill any on the edges like I did.

In progress

All filled up

Then throw them in the oven and bake them for about 45-50 minutes.  Inserting a toothpick or butter knife in the center and if it comes out clean you are good to go.  Let them sit a little while in their pans before taking a knife to cut around the outside to dislodge the loaves then turning them out onto some paper towels for further cooling. 

Cool in pans for about 5-10 mins

Cool on paper towels until just warm to the touch

From here you can eat right away or wrap in plastic wrap while still slightly warm to preserve them best.  Optional delight might include spreading butter on them or enjoying with a cup of coffee.  Either way you can’t go wrong eating or sharing (if you can stand to give them away) these little loaves of wonder.

Until next time!

Brittani

WiP: Cargo Pants

So the past few weeks have been busy, to say the least.  Here's a picture of what I'm working on (besides home work and you know... work).

Yeah, doesn't look like much yet does it?  Still, I'm insanely proud with my progress.  This is the second pair of 'real' pants I've ever made, and the first pair were super simple wide leg pants on an elastic waist band.  They're not really my style.  However I realized that I am wearing my few pears of jeans out and to be honest I really want cargo pants.  At least in Arizona, good cargo pants for women as fairly hard to find.  The ones I could find have been cheaply made out of thin fabric.  I'm rough on my clothes so I wanted something a bit tougher.

This is a natural colored cotton twill with some stretch.  I can't say the exact content.  I got it from SAS, and awesome little store in Tempe, AZ.  They mostly have mill ends and such, so you sometimes have to dig to find what you want.  There are a lot of treasures though, and I could spend hours there!  I'm using a plain unbleached cotton as the pocket linings.  

So far, I have the front assembled except for button holes and buttons.  These are going to be button fly with 8 pockets- two front, two back, and two on each side.  There will be a grand total of eight buttons, four on the fly and two on each side pocket flap.  The list of things I've done -wrong- are surprisingly minimal.  I drafted the pleated cargo pocket too small, and didn't realize it until after I'd cut the fabric and pressed the pleat into it.  Luckily I had enough large pieces to redraft and get two more pockets.  And let's not talk about the flat fell seam.

Actually, let's do.  First off, it's backwards- that's the wrong side of the fabric you see there.  Second, it's a pretty awful seam.  Third, this is the inseam.  How the heck am I supposed to put side cargo pockets on if I've already sewn the inseam you ask?  Yeah, I couldn't figure that one out either.  So this whole seam is getting ripped out.  Since it was already trimmed I'm going to be careful when I match it back together and see if I can get it neater.  Then I think the key will be lots of pins or *shudder* basting. 

The goal for this weekend is to get the outside seams sewn up, check the fit, flat fell those seam, and pick out the inseam.  On Monday I'll have some time in my college's sewing lab to attach the pockets and maybe even fix the inseam.

On that note, the Bernina I've been working on scares me.  I have an old Riccar machine that's worked just fine but that thing shakes whatever table it's put on to pieces. The Bernina, despite not being a top line machine, is whisper quiet and so smooth in comparison.  The fact that the needle always stops up also freaks me out a bit because I frequently stop my machine with the needle down to help hold the fabric in place while I'm making sure it's lined up and such.  It does take some getting used to.

That's it for now.  Again only one post this week, but hopefully when it's my turn again I'll be able to post up a picture of the finished pants, plus a bonus post!  Brittani leaves for York in two weeks.  I'm going to miss her, but I don't envy her.  York is cold!

-Kellie

Freelance Writing and Personal Projects

7 September 2013

I’m a rather poor soon-to-be graduate student.  I need ways to make some money while I am studying besides the hope that I will have a job in England.  Without knowing the job market and availability of jobs in York I have had to look into other ways to earn some cash.  One of the first things I looked into, while poor and trying to put food on the table in Spain was freelancing.

I know Kellie and I have mentioned it in passing that we looked into and eventually starting working on freelance writing to help cover expenses while living abroad.  Since coming back to the States I have continued to look for work and have had mild success at it.

The website that I primarily use is oDesk.  It has a much easier to use interface and setting up a profile is simple and straightforward.  Kellie and I did look into Freelancer and Elance but found their set ups to be difficult to use and understand.  Additionally I feel that the community on oDesk is smaller and thus much it easier to land a job.

The way freelancing works is you scour through the posted jobs (once you have set up your profile, that is) and open a few postings that look like something you are interested and capable of doing.  Usually I check out the price first and whether or not someone has already been hired for the position.  If things check out there I read through the description in order to confirm whether or not I actually want to do such as job.  If I do I apply. 

When applying you set your price, your expected time frame and write a cover letter explaining why you should be hired.  Including any information that is specifically requested in the job posting, then you send it off and hope to be invited to interview.  In reality you have to apply to several jobs before you are hired for a few.

In the past I have written on so many different topics that range from food articles, history ebooks, romance stories, science fiction short stories, product descriptions and book reviews, to name a few.  But behind all of the freelancing work is a desire to create and publish my own material.  I love to write and of course I would love to be paid to write my own stories.  But that it’s in the works at the moment.

Though on the line-up of personal projects to start I have an epic space novel that I am very excited about as well as a few shorter stories for competitions, all in the science-fiction/fantasy genre.  I am always looking for feedback and criticism.   Up next in personal work is a short short story for a Writer’s Digest competition.  The story must be less than 1,500 words.  That is not easy to do.  But alas I shall try!  And always I am searching for additional freelance writing.  The search will never be over.

Next time I hope to have a progress report for the scarf.  Needless to say it hasn't progressed as quickly as I would have liked, but it progresses nonetheless.

Until next time!

Oh and I can't leave you without a picture, so here is one of my dogs, Ebony, being cute and judging you at the same time.

She can be adorable and crabby at the same time.

-Brittani

Can I Really Be a Photographer?

4 September 2013

It is a question I often asked myself throughout the years and often times I would say no.  I didn't own a big fancy camera with an adjustable lens and a special carrying case and all the other equipment I thought was a requirement to have in order to be a ‘photographer’.  But I love to take pictures, especially of landscapes and historic buildings.  So while I was abroad this year I just took the pictures I wanted, both memory making pictures as well as artistic type photos.

In the Archaeology Museum of Sevilla

And boy, were there a lot of funny pictures.  These kinds of pictures bring me back in time to when the events initially occurred and it allows me to relive those happy and exciting times.  In the past few months that I have been home I have found that I miss being surrounded by the history and the ease of living in a walkable city.  Yet in only a few short weeks I will be returning to Europe and living out another year abroad and away from home.

BY THE WAY I OFFICIALLY HAVE MY VISA IN HAND!

But back to the topic of the blog post, photography.  It wasn’t until I returned back to the States and started to dive into my pictures that I realized I had a few gems in the bunch.  While in my hunt through the mires of the Internet searching for ways to stay afloat financially I came across a website that would take my photographs and sell them as prints.  The site is called Fine Art America and it can take your digital photos and print them in a variety of ways including on canvas.

Palm trees in Sevilla

Here is the start of my profile and portfolio with more work being added as I go.  Part of the process for me is fine tuning the photos I have before posting them to be—hopefully—purchased.  On the recommendation from Kellie I downloaded a free photo altering program called GIMP.  I don’t do that much to the photos besides cleaning up the crop, sharpening the picture, changing to black/white schemes, etc.

I would like to think that so far everything is running smoothly.  Though, I am still searching for that elusive first purchase.  Granted I haven’t put as much effort into marketing as I should, but that is something to continue to build and work on as I go.

Currently I am working on a few photos from my recent trip to L.A. with my sister for her belated birthday/missed graduation gift.  That is in addition to the photos I have from London and Spain that I am also working on as well. 

Big Ben

As I get this photography business under my belt perhaps one day I will buy one of those ‘real’ cameras for photography.  Until then I am pretty happy with my Panasonic Lumix. 

Also, the scarf progresses, if not at an incredibly slow pace.  More updates to come in the following weeks.  Until next time!

Brittani

Doll Clothes and Dinner!

So, I'm a bit late getting this post out this week.  I mean, it's already Saturday evening.  The truth is, the college semester started two weeks ago and despite not being a serious student, I'm taking a full load of classes.  In addition, I'm trying to have some sort of social life.  This semester, I'm taking mostly boring classes- Microeconomics, Bookkeeping, a business class, and a sewing class.  The sewing class is really more of a lab, giving me access to some gorgeous Bernina sewing machines and four hours every Monday to devote to sewing.  Yay!

Unfortunately, I don't have any pictures of the projects I'm working on, but the circle skirt may get some attention this weekend.  I've been quibbling over how to do the zipper and if I wanted to add pockets because I was afraid it was a bit too plain.  I love the fabric though, so I didn't want to muck with the print too much.  Last night it hit me- you'll just have to wait to see it!

Last weekend however I whipped up a little something to make sure my machine and serger were still in good working order and to remind myself how rusty my skills are.  Thus, a doll shirt.  To say I collect Asian Ball-Jointed dolls might be stretching it.  I only have one, my handsome Sabik by the Korean company Soom.  His name is Carousel.  

Well, this makes it obvious I've been out of the sewing loop for a while.  For a three hour project from pattern drafting to finishing I'm pretty happy with it.  He provides some special fitting issues in that a) he isn't squshy and b) he has extremely wide shoulders but a pretty trim waist.  I wanted something I could pull over his head, but didn't have any stretch fabric so there was some compromise between fit and ease of dressing with this.  And for an added bonus, some pattern matching fail.  I only have two or three yards of this gorgeous navy and brown japanese cotton.  I didn't want to use too much of it because I have other plans for it.  So I only made a minimal effort at matching patterns.  My thread and notions stash is also woefully understocked and I just used whatever thread was in the machine.  In this case, an ivory/natural color that I think work fine.  All in all, I'm happier with this shirt than the last few I sewed for him over a year and a half ago.  I also made his pants oh... two years ago but have since lost the pattern I drafted for them.  A shame too, because they fit really well.

Bonus: 

Doesn't that look delicious?  I'll give you a hint- it was.  Bell peppers, sugar snap peas, onions, garlic, and (frozen) gnocchi all sauteed up with whatever seasonings I had on hand.  I love gnocchi done this way.  Brittani gave me some dirty looks for using frozen gnocchi after our fun gnocchi making weekends in Spain but really it isn't any fun to do it alone. 

I'm Making a SCARF!!

21 August 2013

These past few weeks have been crazy to say in the least.  I have been wrestling with my Visa application for studying in England and all the pre-work that has to be done in order to send it in.  I had to get my fingerprints scanned and a full facial photograph.  This is in addition to the countless piles of paperwork I had to sift through in order to create the package to be sent for Visa consideration.  All in all it has been a long and stressful road thus far, and I’m not even in England yet.

This is all in addition to my sister preparing to head off to college.  As you may or may not remember I attended Arizona State University.  Well it seems my family is destined to be a House Divided since my sister is going to attend the University of Arizona.  The long standing rivalry between these two schools is famous and each year they have a game, called ‘The Duel in the Desert’ for ownership of The Territorial Cup, one of the oldest trophy rivalry game.

This past year it was won by ASU!  Go Sun Devils!

So visa stuff and college prep for the next sibling in line after me, quite busy.  But alas I still find some time for a little crafting.  When we were last together I was figuring out a few basic stitches and was thinking about my first project.  Well I did a little research into how to make a simple scarf and found that you only need to know how to Chain stitch and Single Crochet stitch.

It was about 25 chain stitches long

I started by making a chain stitch for as wide as I wanted the scarf to be.  Length will be determined by how long I continue to stitch.  I tend to stitch very tightly and thus the holes you typically see are quite small and hard to see.  That also means that my fingers are a little achy from the pressure I put on them for making such a tight stitch.

Close up of the chain stitch

From there I made my first real row of single crochet stitches.  This is accomplished by ‘turning the chain’ which for a single crochet stitch means crocheting one chain stitch when you get to the end of the row before continuing onto the next row.  This is to ensure that the stitches look right and are of the right height.

First completed row

And then I just continued for a few rows.  It took me a little longer to get those few rows done than I thought but I did notice that I sped up a bit as I went.  You can certainly enter a sort of trance when working on crocheting projects. 

The adventure has began, only a zillion more rows to go!

I know it is going to take me a while to finish this scarf to the length that I want but I will be sure to keep the blog updated with my progress on this and any other projects I start.  Until next time!

Brittani