Dreaming Into Creation

....Miniatures, that is.  Yup, I have gotten into the realm of miniatures!  Eh....  one more thing for me to craft with, I know.  And yes, I know it has been forever since I have updated this blog.  Life seriously kicked in for a while, and I spent two months homeless (well, living with my sister while looking for a place I could afford), but I am now in my own apartment!  Which means, I actually have space to do a lot of my crafts!  Woo!!! Well, I will be updating about the other ongoing crafts and stuff as I finally get around to them!  In fact, I started a new cross stitch, but I will not post about that one much until I finish/give the finished product to my friends for the holidays.  I don 't want them to get a sneak peak here..... So yes, back to my quick little update about the miniatures I have gotten into.  I had never gotten into miniatures, even back when I played D&D a lot more often than I do now (I live too far away...

Yes, I know, its been forever since my last blog post.  But, fear not.... just because I haven't posted does not mean that I haven't been working on things!  Not only have I been working on my current cross stitch projects, I have started another!  Yes, another... hahaha  And, I have been getting ready for a move.  My friend (who I am helping out with various sewing projects) and I are looking for a new place, so it will be hectic for a little while in my life. First up on the progress list!  Middle Earth!  It took me some time, because I did not have all the colors I needed to continue, and its also summer... I have had a hard time concentrating on it during nice days, so I have a feeling that most of the progress on this work in progress will be in the winter time.  I will finish it tho! It just will most likely take me many years hahahaha. I think its turning out very pretty XD Next on my progress over the last few weeks/months... ...

Almond and Orange extracts.  I figured it was about time to see how the experiments panned out!  The almond, seen in this post , was a beautiful murky color.  Just look at that color!  It smelled wonderful too (once I opened the jar).  I can't wait to try it out, possibly with this yummy almond apricot oatmeal scone recipe that I have.  I may or may not post that recipe in an upcoming blog.  Depends on if people want it!  So, as seen in my loverly Halloween post, I have all these little mini booze bottles.  I like them, they are pretty (some of them) and can be darn useful!  Either for little potions bottles or for bottling up small amounts of extracts!  (And I have them because I work as a booze seller, and the little ones make it a lot easier on my wallet for when I want to try what we sell.  In WA the liquor prices are so ridiculous that I can't afford to get bigger bottles anymore.)  As you can see, I have one l...

I know, the whole 'make your own recipe binder' thing has been done like crazy on different blogs all over the internet.  I should know, I've looked a bunch of them up to get different inspirations for this one!  See, I will be moving within a few months (the lease on our current place is up at the end of July, and we will all be parting ways and going in different directions) and I'm trying to think of ways for me to lighten my load, so to speak.  One of them is to get my recipe books and all that together and organized (and paired down...)  One of the things I will slowly be doing over the next month or two is copying down the recipes that I do actually use from various cookbooks so they are all in one spot.  As you can see, I have a lot of cook books.  This actually isn't even all of them.  And, this doesn't include the year subscription I had to Food magazine a few years ago.  Or the magazines I've gotten that are not i...

Season three premier of Game of Thrones was last night.  Oh Ma Gawd......  I love the show.  That's all I have to say about that... Well, I own the loverly A Feast of Fire and Ice cookbook (and I frequent the blog innatthecrossroads.com quite often) and I decided that for the much anticipated premier, that I would make a bunches of foods.  And I did....  if you count four things 'bunches' hahaha Be warned.... this post is picture heavy and foodgasmic.  You have been warned... So here be the final product....  minus the lovely dessert.  Mmmm... Ommegang Iron Throne Pale Ale.  It was quite delicious, and I am not a big beer person at all.  So that's saying something... And here is how all that yumminess came into being...  Most of the foods mentioned from here on out can be found on the Inn at the Crossroads  food blog.  If not in there, then they can be found in the fore mentioned book, written by th...

So, its been a hard month so far.  My mom passed away Jan. 30th from still unknown causes (Harborview is still investigating why she died) and we have been getting things ready for her Celebration of Life on March 2nd.  So, lots of things have been going on. But, I have been working on things that are crafty as well.  They have been keeping my mind busy.  Also, because mom drank rum and no one else in the house will touch the stuff...   First was orange extract. We had one orange left sitting out, and I decided that I might as well try making extract out of it.  I mean, why not?  So, I zested the bugger.  After cleaning it of course.  I didn't want any weird tastes from whatever they put on the skins of fruit. Orange zest... smelled yummy....  I read somewhere on another blog about making extracts that you can add sugar to the zest.  It called for a full teaspoon, but I thought it was a little much, so I added about an eig...