Double-blueberry lemon beer bread

 

I mostly failed in writing about or recording my recipes, projects, and experiments for 2021, but that doesn't mean I can't start again fresh in 2022, right?  

So this is what I made on Saturday to bring to my parents' house as a treat...

I've been working on what is essentially a double-blueberry beer bread--a quick-style beer bread made with both blueberry beer and fresh blueberries--for a while now.  I've entered two versions in the State Fair (no ribbons for it so far!), but this newest version is the best yet, I think.  The dough is a beautiful light lavender color, though that color largely bakes out.  Ane the addition of the extra lemon ingredients make the finishing taste a nice citrus one.       

Ingredients:

• 3 cups all-purpose flour
• 4 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• +/- 1/4 tsp dried grated lemon peel 
• 1/2 cup firmly packed brown sugar (this time I used dark brown sugar)
• 12 oz. blueberry beer (I used Grain Belt Blu blueberry lager)
• 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1/4  teaspoon lemon extract
• 2 Tablespoons lemon juice
• 3 Tablespoons melted butter
• 1 cup whole, fresh blueberries with 1 Tablespoon flour stirred into them
• Finely granulated white sugar to sprinkle on top of the loaf 

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 375°F 
2. Lightly spray 9 x 5 inch loaf pan with non-stick spray
3. Whisk together flour, baking powder, salt, brown sugar, and lemon peel
   
   
   
   
   
4. Lightly whisk together vanilla, lemon juice, lemon extract, melted butter, and beer in a measuring cup
   
   
   
   
   
5. Pour liquids into dry ingredients and stir until well mixed
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
6. Fold in blueberries
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
7. Put mixture in pan, smooth top, and sprinkle top with granulated sugar
   
   
   
   
   
8. Bake 45 to 50 minutes, until lightly browned and middle is set

Organizing the most unorganized of kitchen drawers

Before I left for the ALA Midwinter meeting in the last week of January, I decided to do a bit of an organization project in my kitchen.  Basically I was tired of raking around in my "other kitchen stuff" drawer looking for what I needed to use.  On top of everything else, some of the things in the drawer are stabby (or grate-y)!

I used some sturdy cardboard from a box, wrapped the pieces in wrapping paper--to go with the red theme in my kitchen--and put them in diagonally.  They are held in/up with scotch tape at the moment, and between that and the stuff in the sections, it seems to be holding up.  

One section has my tea stuff, one has measuring spoons, one has measuring cups, and one is everything else. 

I'm sure this will not be a permanent change--I should use contact paper or something that is more heavy duty--but it's working well for now and I feel good about at least one area where I'm being more organized!  

End of the Year: Reading Challenge Check-in

Looking back at 2015, I'm really proud of my reading this year.  The reading challenge and its categories helped me reach beyond my normal or go-to genres and authors, encouraging me to read new and different things.  It also encouraged me to talk to my friends and family about what they were reading and seek recommendations.

I'm particularly pleased with my adventures in reading non-fiction this year: I didn't read as much factual stuff as I would have liked to, but way more than in some of the years since I finished grad school.  And since I could read them for me, I got to enjoy them more than I enjoyed many of the non-fiction books I read in school.  

I have also read more new books than I have in a long time.  My stash of Advanced Reader copies and books from ALA midwinter and annual conferences was one inspiration, but I also made use of the good ol' public library to seek out specific books that would be good for a few categories.

At the end of the year, I managed to finish a total of 56 books (Note: even though my Goodreads account--the way I was keeping track of my books this year--shows 56 in the list, it only counts 53.  That's weird, but I'm not sure why.)  Since my unofficial number goal was to average a book a week, I'm really happy with this number.  And the total page count was almost 19,000 pages, which I think is great!  

To recap my personal challenge rules:

• Each book could only count in one category...even if it fit into more than one
• Once I put a book in a category, I couldn't move it...even if that would make it easier to complete categories
• Only books read entirely could count for my year-end totals for books and pages.  
• Novellas and full books of short stories or non-fiction articles counted, but single short stories and articles, and professional journals didn't.
• Every book didn't have to fit the challenge...I didn't want to feel repressed or forced to read anything.  

I finished 31 of the 52 categories and I'm in the middle of 3 books right now.  

I will put the unfinished ones on the challenge list below, with the status noted.  And I'm planning on finishing the rest of this challenge in the New Year.  I definitely think I can do it before summer if I try, and then I can start a new one!

[Categories highlighted in yellow are in process of being finished. Categories highlighted in lavender haven't been started yet.]

Here's the end-of-year list:

1. A book with more than 500 pages
Kushiel's Dart (Phèdre's Trilogy #1)by Jacqueline Carey (1015 pages, published 2003, read in hard copy from my collection, finished March 21)
This was a reread, but I'm thinking of reading the whole trilogy and the world is just *so* complicated (places, religion, politics, ethnic groups, etc.).  Had to read it again, just to remember what all was going on and who the characters were.

2. A classic romance
My Pleasure by Connie Brockway (384 pages, published in 2004, read in hard cover, finished in April)
This spring I decided that it made sense to start at the top of the list and work down.  I got #1 and #2 read in order before I was distracted and read something else.  oops.  This book I picked up as the "get one" in a buy two, get one free offer at an airport used book store when I was on my way home from my UNC job interview.

3. A book that became a movie
The Maze Runner (The Maze Runner #1) by James Dashner (384 pages, published in 2009, read on my phone, finished 13 September 2015)
I had a hard time with this one, picking it up and putting it down several times over the months.  I liked the movie, which is what made me want to read the book.  The movie had a variety of differences, many of which make sense in the book vs. movie.  The best thing I can say is that the idea was kind of unique and definitely had an ending that was not expected.  The set up for the rest of the series is actually pretty cool.

4. A book published this year
Red Queen (Red Queen #1) by Victoria Aveyard (383 pages, published February 2015, read in hard copy, finished 22 July 2015)
I picked up this book at the ALA midwinter conference in Chicago this year.  It is a young adult novel, and it reminds me of a lot of the other kinds of things that have been published in the world of young adult books: sort of a future-post-apocalyptic-but-also-a-throwback kinda thing.  It was pretty entertaining.  When I found out that the woman who wrote it was a script writer as well, it made lots of sense.

5. A book with a number in the title
I Am Number Four (Lorien Legacies #1) by Pittacus Lore (440 pages, published 2010, read on my phone, finished 23 October 2015)
I saw the movie of this one first, and figured it might be worth it to read the book so that I could see how the rest of the series goes.  The movie and book are very similar, actually, though the character development is almost better in the movie.

6. A book written by someone under 30
Tangled Webs by Lee Bross (304 pages, published 2015, read in hard copy, advanced reader copy, finished 15 April 2015)
The plot follows Arista--aka Lady A--who is taken out of a horrible orphanage by a horrible man named Bones. He makes her into a thief (though not much of that is shown, to be honest) and by the time she's a teenager, she is the lynchpin in his blackmail operation. Wearing fancy dress and a feathered mask she attends masked parties and balls across London, collecting "secrets" and money from clients and victims. When not doing this, she lives in utter squalor and dresses like a boy to travel safely around the city. Eventually things go bad and she ends up indebted to a different terrible crime-lord, who places her in the home of a lovely shipping-merchant family. Of course, she falls in love with their dreamy son and decides that she not only *wants* to be, but that she *will be* good...and then she'll run away to India.  A YA novel with a Dickensian setting.  I really have no idea if the author is under 30, but this is her first book and she looks fairly young in a photo I saw....so I'm just going to go with it.  If she is over 30, I'm sure she wouldn't mind if I said she is younger! :)

7. A book with nonhuman characters
Charming (Pax Arcana #1) by Elliott James (366 pages, published 2013, read in hard copy, finished 19 Jan 2015)

8. A funny book
Paddle Your Own Canoe: One Man's Fundamentals for Delicious Living by Nick Offerman (340 pages, published in 2013, read in hard copy, NOT YET FINISHED as of 1 Jan. 2015)
I was inspired to read this book after I saw Nick Offerman speak at ALA this past summer.  I got this book and had it signed at a signing, but I'm not reading that copy; I'm reading a library copy.  I had to return it once, but have it again and will be finishing it soon!

9. A book by a female author
Is Everyone Hanging Out Without Me? (And Other Concerns) by Mindy Kaling (222 pages, published 2011, read on my phone, finished 11 July 2015)
I've wanted to read this pretty much since it came out in 2011, but never got around to it.  Now that it is readily available to check out from the library (in both regular and ebook formats), I finally did it.  I always suspected that I would have a lot in common with Mindy Kaling, and I was right.  She is officially on my "celebrities I wish I could actually be friends with" list.  And on my "would they make a good next door neighbor" scale for judging celebrities, I think she scores extremely high.  People tell me I'm funny and sometimes I actually think I am, and this kind of book is basically what I wish I could write and have people want to read.  And--who knows--maybe I could.  But she already has!

10. A mystery or thriller
Murder on the Orient Express by Agatha Christie (322 pages, published in 1934, read on my phone, checked out from 3M ebooks, finished 17 July 2015)
Read this for my book-club's book-movie-pie event.  We ate pie, discussed the book, and then watched the movie.  I really think that the story holds up well for being over 80 years old.  This is at least partially because of the setting: snowed in on a train with no communication from the outside.  The mystery has to be solved while they are isolated and nobody can use any fancy technology, so it seems plausible to figure it out through interviewing the people on the train and using psychology.

11. A book with a one-word title
Vicious by V.E. Schwab (364 pages, published 2013, read in hard copy checked out from library, finished 3 January 2015)
An interesting take on the idea of super-powers: what constitutes a "power," who has them, how they get them, and what powers people end up with. This was the Dec/Jan book for the Amazing Book Club of Doom.  

12. A book of short stories
Three-Ten to Yuma and Other Stories (193 pages, published 1953, read in hard copy, finished 5 October 2015)
I have read some of Leonard's books, but not any of his westerns.  However, I loved the movie of 3:10 to Yuma and many of the movies and shows based on his works.  These short stories were really interesting, with a grey tone to the characters.  My favorite was The Captive, the longest story...almost a novella.  It had a protagonist and antagonist that were fairly close in sensibility, circumstances made them go to opposite sides of the law (something that is in 3:10, too).

13. A book set in a different country
Year of Wonders by Geraldine Brooks (308 pages, published 2001, read in hard copy, finished Jan. 2015)

14. A nonfiction book
You're Never Weird on the Internet (Almost) by Felicia Day (262 pages, published 2015, read in hard copy, finished early December 2015)
A really interesting memoir/autobiography by actress, producer, writer, and all-around nerd Felicia Day.  A truly weird life and a very, very smart woman.  The story also resonated with me on several levels: as a smart person, as someone who was weird as a kid, as a woman who is tech savvy, as a feminist, etc.

15. A popular author’s first book

16. A book from an author you love that you haven’t read yet
Mayflower: A Story of Courage, Community, and War by Philbrick, Nathaniel (461 pages, published in 2006, read in hard copy, finished 30 September 2015)
I read this one because I really, really liked In the Heart of the Sea:The Tragedy of the Whaleship Essex.  (I recommend it to all kinds of people!)  This one was a really, really good book.  Well researched and well told.  It is not really the story of the Mayflower alone, though that is how it starts.  It is actually the story of the landing and then the next 60 years, all the way to King Phillip's War.  Basically a story of the interactions between all the groups (Pilgrims, various Indian groups, other settlers, etc.).  A complicated story, and one that blows all the stereotypes of the Mayflower and Thanksgiving right out of the water.

17. A book a friend recommended
Good Omens: The Nice and Accurate Prophecies of Agnes Nutter, Witch by Terry Pratchett and Neil Gaiman (published in 1990, 430 pages, read in hard cover, finished 27 December 2015)
I read this one for the December Book Club o' Doom meeting and it was suggested my my co-worker Sondra Reierson.  (I finished it after the book club meeting, but still went to talk about the first 2/3 that I did finish on time!)  Very funny!  I love the asides, the quirkiness, and the switching of perspective.  Plus, the relationship between the angel and the demon is really amazingly awesome.  My favorite part is when they talk about helping each other out with their "work" on earth, just for efficiency's sake.

18. A Pulitzer Prize-winning book

19. A book based on a true story
The Unwritten Law: A True Crime of Passion by Danny Cantrell (144 pages, published in 2013, read on my phone, finished on 27 December 2015)
A novelization of a true crime story, but one that is supposed to hew pretty close to the truth.  The author's idea was to tell the story, complete with dialogue, based on a depression area case. A Kentucky wife shoots her husband's mistress on a train in front of tons of witnesses and is acquitted based on the "unwritten law" of protecting her family.  An interesting story and a crazy set of circumstances.

20. A book at the bottom of your to-read list

21. A book your mom loves

22. A book that scares you

23. A book more than 100 years old

24. A book based entirely on its cover
The Clockwork Scarab (Stoker & Holmes #1) by Colleen Gleason (356 pages, published in 2013, read in hard copy, finished 1 November 2015)
A steampunk YA novel featuring the much-younger sister of Bram Stoker (a vampire hunter) and niece of Sherlock Holmes (a detective in her own right).  A clever idea, though I HATED the time-travel element that was thrown in.  And the cover *is* awesome:


25. A book you were supposed to read in school but didn’t

26. A memoir
The Rose Hotel: A Memoir of Secrets, Loss, and Love From Iran to America (336 pages, published 2015 in trade paperback, read in hard-copy, finished October 2015

27. A book you can finish in one day
Countdown (The Sixties Trilogy #1) by Deborah Wiles (394 pages, published 2010, read in hard cover, started/finished 18 September 2015)
A middle-grade book (though a long one) for Book Club o' Doom.

28. A book with antonyms in the title
Inside Out by Maria V. Snyder  (320 pages, published in 2010, read on my phone, finished 8 Jan. 2015)
I was a fan of Snyder's Study series (starting with Poison Study) and thought the idea of Inside Out was very cool.  It is her first book written for a young adult audience and the main character is a young woman living in a dystopian reality where there is a literal hierarchy.  She is one of the "lowers"--the workers--but she works cleaning the air vent system, which gives her the opportunity  to explore higher levels.  I described it on my Goodreads account as "Sort of Cube meets Snowpiercer meets Hunger Games/Divergent."

29. A book set somewhere you’ve always wanted to visit
Night Broken (Mercy Thompson #8) by Patricia Briggs (341 pages, published in 2014, read on my phone, finished 28 January 2015)
Set in the Tri-Cities in Washington state.  I've never been to the Pacific Northwest at all, but it seems like a beautiful place with some cool people, stuff, and general outlooks.  

30. A book that came out the year you were born

31. A book with bad reviews

32, 33, 34. A trilogy
32. Trilogy Book 1
Divergent (Divergent #1) by Veronica Roth (487 pages, published 2011, read in hard copy, finished 8 Feb. 2015)
33.Trilogy Book 2
Insurgent (Divergent #2) by Veronica Roth (525 pages, published 2012, read on my phone, finished 5 October 2015)
34. Trilogy Book 3
Allegiant (Divergent #3) by Veronica Roth (526 pages, published 2013, read in hard copy, NOT YET FINISHED as of 1 Jan. 2015)

35. A book from your childhood

36. A book with a love triangle
Heart of Brass (Clockwork Agents #1) by Kate Cross (371 pages, published 2012, read in hard copy, finished 28 November 2015)
A steampunk, romance-y novel with a sort-of love triangle between the main character, her husband (returned after being missing for several years), and his best friend.  The friendship between the protagonist and the husband's friend grew on his part to love, but not really on hers.  It is sort of a they-might-have-ended-up-together-except story: except the husband returned, except the protagonist is really independent, except she never gave up that the husband might return, except they were better friends than a couple in her eyes, etc.


37. A book set in the future
Jaran (Jaran #1) by Kate Elliott (496 pages, published 2002, read on my phone, NOT YET FINISHED as of 1 Jan. 2015)


38. A book set in high school

39. A book with a color in the title
Written in Red (The Others #1) by Anne Bishop (433 pages, published 2013, read in hard copy, finished 24 Jan. 2015)

40. A book that made you cry

41. A book with magic
Dream London (The Dream World #1) by Tony Ballantyne (404 pages, published in 2013, read in hard copy, finished 12 March 2015)
A very creative, very cool, very weird book.  With science, magic, confusion, and craziness.  The world essentially changes constantly and leaving London isn't really possible once you are there.  Elements of noir and a rugged, rough hero.  

42. A graphic novel
Ms. Marvel #1: No Normal by G. Willow Wilson (author) and Adrian Alphona (Artist) (120 pages, published 2014, finished 21 March 2015)
Read this one for Book Club o' Doom and I've decided: I want to like graphic novels, there are elements of graphic novels that I like, and there are movies/shows based on comics/graphic novels that I love.  But I still haven't found a graphic novel that I actually enjoyed reading.  sigh.

43. A book by an author you’ve never read before
Kindred by Octavia Butler (264 pages, published 1979, tried to read in ebook on my phone and ended up reading in hard copy from the library, finished 19 June 2015)
OK, I've read at least one Butler short story, I'm pretty sure.  But I'm really not sure which one.  And I know I've never read one of her books, so I think it is fair to count this hear.  Kindred is a book I've been meaning to read for years, and I'm glad I finally did.  Thanks goes to the Book Club o' Doom for pushing me to read this one now!  Really good, really interesting.  The racial aspects are most often talked about, but I thought the gender aspects were really where she shines.  She writes a great main character in Dana, but the men are nuanced as well.  They have fears, weaknesses, control issues, emotions.  Something that you don't often see: a sci-fi writer who can actually write male and female characters.  That this was published in the 1970s makes this story even more amazing.

44. A book you own but have never read

Throne of the Crescent Moon (The Crescent Moon Kingdoms #1) by Saladin Ahmed (367 pages, published 2012, read in hard copy, finished 13 August 2015)
I picked this one up at the Barnes and Noble shortly after it was published--an impulse purchase from the new sci-fi/fantasy paperbacks display.  It won several awards and is a fascinating take on epic fantasy in a non-Euro-centric way.  Worth buying and worth reading.

45. A book that takes place in your hometown
Undead and Unwed (Undead #1) by MaryJanice Davidson (255 pages, published in 2004, read in hard copy, finished 24 September 2015)
I read this one a long time ago, maybe the first year of grad school.  But I didn't remember it at all, and I definitely didn't remember it being set in the Twin Cities.  It was a funny book about a woman who basically just wants to live her life and have some nice shoes, but she gets turned into a vampire....and is actually queen-vampire material.  Sort of like a paranormal Janet Evanovich Stephanie Plum novel in tone.

46. A book that was originally written in a different language


47. A book set during Christmas

48. A book written by an author with your same initials

49. A play

50. A banned book

51. A book based on or turned into a TV show

52. A book you started but never finished
The Republic of Thieves (Gentleman Bastard #3) by Scott Lynch (650 pages, published in 2013, read in hard copy, finished 11 September 2015)
I love Scott Lynch's books, so I bought this one when it first came out.  It literally arrived on my doorstep in an Amazon.com book the day it was released.  I started it, but didn't want to read it too fast.  I wanted to SAVOR it.  So I put it aside....and eventually I had put it aside for long enough that I forgot what was going on.  So I waited....and waited....and 2 years later I started it again.  I tried to read it at a slow pace and I rationed the book, only reading a chapter or two at a time and reading something else simultaneously so I wouldn't finish too quickly.  Worth it!!!!  

Reading Challenge Update

The interaction between Blogger on my phone and on my computer continues to ruin posts.  This is particularly annoying.  This time, it is the fact that I had been updating my reading challenge list as I went, but at some point in June the post reverted to its original form from January.  I lost all the book descriptions and comments.  Boo.

So, I decided that what I needed was an update post, entirely separate from the original.  Since it is slightly more than halfway through the year, it also makes sense to just check in on how I'm doing in reaching my goal and maybe ruminate on how to be sure to finish it by the end of 2015.


Here's the list:

1. A book with more than 500 pages
Kushiel's Dart (Phèdre's Trilogy #1)by Jacqueline Carey (1015 pages, published 2003, read in hard copy from my collection, finished March 21)
This was a reread, but I'm thinking of reading the whole trilogy and the world is just *so* complicated (places, religion, politics, ethnic groups, etc.).  Had to read it again, just to remember what all was going on and who the characters were.

2. A classic romance
My Pleasure by Connie Brockway (384 pages, published in 2004, read in hard cover, finished in April)
This spring I decided that it made sense to start at the top of the list and work down.  I got #1 and #2 read in order before I was distracted and read something else.  oops.  This book I picked up as the "get one" in a buy two, get one free offer at an airport used book store when I was on my way home from my UNC job interview.

3. A book that became a movie

4. A book published this year
Red Queen (Red Queen #1) by Victoria Aveyard (383 pages, published February 2015, read in hard copy, finished 22 July 2015)
I picked up this book at the ALA midwinter conference in Chicago this year.  It is a young adult novel, and it reminds me of a lot of the other kinds of things that have been published in the world of young adult books: sort of a future-post-apocalyptic-but-also-a-throwback kinda thing.  It was pretty entertaining.  When I found out that the woman who wrote it was a script writer as well, it made lots of sense.  

5. A book with a number in the title

6. A book written by someone under 30

7. A book with nonhuman characters
Charming (Pax Arcana #1) by Elliott James (366 pages, published 2013, read in hard copy, finished 19 Jan 2015)

8. A funny book

9. A book by a female author
Is Everyone Hanging Out Without Me? (And Other Concerns) by Mindy Kaling (222 pages, published 2011, read on my phone, finished 11 July 2015)
I've wanted to read this pretty much since it came out in 2011, but never got around to it.  Now that it is readily available to check out from the library (in both regular and ebook formats), I finally did it.  I always suspected that I would have a lot in common with Mindy Kaling, and I was right.  She is officially on my "celebrities I wish I could actually be friends with" list.  And on my "would they make a good next door neighbor" scale for judging celebrities, I think she scores extremely high.  People tell me I'm funny and sometimes I actually think I am, and this kind of book is basically what I wish I could write and have people want to read.  And--who knows--maybe I could.  But she already has!

10. A mystery or thriller
Murder on the Orient Express by Agatha Christie (322 pages, published in 1934, read on my phone, checked out from 3M ebooks, finished 17 July 2015)
Read this for my book-club's book-movie-pie event.  We ate pie, discussed the book, and then watched the movie.  I really think that the story holds up well for being over 80 years old.  This is at least partially because of the setting: snowed in on a train with no communication from the outside.  The mystery has to be solved while they are isolated and nobody can use any fancy technology, so it seems plausible to figure it out through interviewing the people on the train and using psychology.

11. A book with a one-word title
Vicious by V.E. Schwab (364 pages, published 2013, read in hard copy checked out from library, finished 3 January 2015)
An interesting take on the idea of super-powers: what constitutes a "power," who has them, how they get them, and what powers people end up with. This was the Dec/Jan book for the Amazing Book Club of Doom.  

12. A book of short stories

13. A book set in a different country
Year of Wonders by Geraldine Brooks (308 pages, published 2001, read in hard copy, finished Jan. 2015)

14. A nonfiction book

15. A popular author’s first book

16. A book from an author you love that you haven’t read yet

17. A book a friend recommended

18. A Pulitzer Prize-winning book

19. A book based on a true story

20. A book at the bottom of your to-read list

21. A book your mom loves

22. A book that scares you

23. A book more than 100 years old

24. A book based entirely on its cover

25. A book you were supposed to read in school but didn’t

26. A memoir

27. A book you can finish in one day

28. A book with antonyms in the title
Inside Out by Maria V. Snyder  (320 pages, published in 2010, read on my phone, finished 8 Jan. 2015)
I was a fan of Snyder's Study series (starting with Poison Study) and thought the idea of Inside Out was very cool.  It is her first book written for a young adult audience and the main character is a young woman living in a dystopian reality where there is a literal hierarchy.  She is one of the "lowers"--the workers--but she works cleaning the air vent system, which gives her the opportunity  to explore higher levels.  I described it on my Goodreads account as "Sort of Cube meets Snowpiercer meets Hunger Games/Divergent."

29. A book set somewhere you’ve always wanted to visit

30. A book that came out the year you were born

31. A book with bad reviews

32, 33, 34. A trilogy
32. Trilogy Book 1
Divergent (Divergent #1) by Veronica Roth (487 pages, published 2011, read in hard copy, finished 8 Feb. 2015)
33.
34.

35. A book from your childhood

36. A book with a love triangle

37. A book set in the future

38. A book set in high school

39. A book with a color in the title
Written in Red (The Others #1) by Anne Bishop (433 pages, published 2013, read in hard copy, finished 24 Jan. 2015)

40. A book that made you cry

41. A book with magic

42. A graphic novel
Ms. Marvel #1: No Normal by G. Willow Wilson (author) and Adrian Alphona (Artist) (120 pages, published 2014, finished 21 March 2015)
Read this one for Book Club o' Doom and I've decided: I want to like graphic novels, there are elements of graphic novels that I like, and there are movies/shows based on comics/graphic novels that I love.  But I still haven't found a graphic novel that I actually enjoyed reading.  sigh.

43. A book by an author you’ve never read before
Kindred by Octavia Butler (264 pages, published 1979, tried to read in ebook on my phone and ended up reading in hard copy from the library, finished 19 June 2015)
OK, I've read at least one Butler short story, I'm pretty sure.  But I'm really not sure which one.  And I know I've never read one of her books, so I think it is fair to count this hear.  Kindred is a book I've been meaning to read for years, and I'm glad I finally did.  Thanks goes to the Book Club o' Doom for pushing me to read this one now!  Really good, really interesting.  The racial aspects are most often talked about, but I thought the gender aspects were really where she shines.  She writes a great main character in Dana, but the men are nuanced as well.  They have fears, weaknesses, control issues, emotions.  Something that you don't often see: a sci-fi writer who can actually write male and female characters.  That this was published in the 1970s makes this story even more amazing.

44. A book you own but have never read

45. A book that takes place in your hometown

46. A book that was originally written in a different language

47. A book set during Christmas

48. A book written by an author with your same initials

49. A play

50. A banned book

51. A book based on or turned into a TV show

52. A book you started but never finished

Total read so far this year: 13 of the 52 categories

I'm far less than halfway done, which bums me out.  Not that I'm not on track to read 52 books this year; I've already finished a total of 35 books this year.  It's just that they aren't books that fit with my whole "trying to read different and new things" category.

Also, I'm in the middle of 2 books that can go on the list: The Mazerunner and Mayflower.  Both start with M, but they are extremely different.  And I'm really reading 3 books at the same time, something I always used to do and something I'm glad I'm back to doing.  (The third book is Throne of the Crescent Moon by Saladin Ahmed, a fantasy novel, but one set in a fantastical land based on the Middle East rather than being set in some fantastical version of Europe.  Not sure if it'll make it on the list, though, but it might.)

Obviously I need to concentrate on the list so that I can finish it by the end of the year!  I'm going to try to work from the top down, for the most part, and see how that goes.  I also solicited suggestions from friends on Facebook for a few of the categories like Book Set in High School, Book Set During Christmas, and about 3 more.  Now I have some to-read books that are on-deck, so to speak.  

I'll probably check in with my running total some time in the fall.... And here's hoping I finish!

Back-Deck Container Garden 2015

Last year I started an adventure in container gardening (see photo below).  It went OK...but more importantly I learned how to do better.  Although, to be fair to myself, one of the main problems was that I went on a work trip at the end of June last year. While I was in Las Vegas, the weather at home was equally desert-like.  I think that my plants took the whole no-rain-for-a-week thing pretty personally. They did bounce back--sort of--but I never managed to harvest more than a few cherry tomatoes before the cold struck and my flowers were never what I would call "lush." 

Container Gardening 2014

This year, I have to go on the same work trip at the end of June, so I decided to do two things differently.  First, I wanted to get my plants in a little earlier so that they would be more established when I leave.  Check!  As of today, everything has been planted for at least a week and a half, and some have been in for nearly three.  Second, I wanted to use bigger pots for most things, rather than lots of smaller ones.  This way the soil in the pots would have the potential to hold more moisture.  Happily, Menards had window box planters on a super-sale a few weeks ago and I bought a big pot for a tomato plant at the end of last season.  So...check!

Container Gardening 2015 

Since I now have some beautiful, matching flower pots (thanks to my very own completed painting project!), my deck now looks lovely...and I'm all set to grow the following:

• 2 varieties of cherry tomatoes (Sugar Gloss and Supersweet 100)
• A mixed-color assortment of snapdragons
• White alyssum
• White Nicotiana
• Pale yellow and white-and-purple petunias  

The one thing that makes me a little sad is that my hanging pot holder--purchased at last year's Renaissance Festival--is much too heavy to safely hang from the hooks on my deck.  I don't think the hooks are really anchored in the beams of the porch ceiling, so I don't want to risk it.  However, I think that the "hanger" actually looks pretty good as a "vertical-rack-thing-leaning-in-the-corner," don't you? :)

Blog Anniversary!

Exactly one year ago I started this blog to keep track of my personal projects, baking experiments, etc.  It isn't private (which, if you are anyone but me and reading this, should be obvious) but it being public isn't the point at all.  In fact, at the time I just felt like I needed to record things so that I could prove to myself that I can--and do--do things, sometimes really well.  Putting these things out in the world rather than in a journal of some kind was just a way to share with a few people.

One year later, the original impulse is working! It's incredibly good for me to see some of the non-job things I've done all in one place--even if they were small and/or silly things.  And especially in a year that has been incredibly challenging in all sorts of ways.  

Moral of the story: the greatest pleasures in life are the little things we do.  So, do things that make you happy and give you a sense of accomplishment... And then remember those things and how they make you feel! 

Front Garden: 2015 Edition

My townhouse has a small front garden area.  When I moved in, it had a bush and 4 hostas in front, and a clematis climbing up a little trellis in a rocked in the back area with my air conditioning unit.  Since I moved in, I've had potted plants out front on my steps, trimmed the bush (well, my dad trimmed it for me, actually), and added a little bit of rock on the side closest to the steps.

Rock and mulch look good for a while, but they just seem to sink into the ground over time.  Which means it has to be replaced periodically.  This spring, it was obvious that I needed a bunch of rock and to add some mulch.  And since I was at it, I figured I would add some annual plants, too.  Luckily for me, Menards was having a big sale that included annuals, the white rock I wanted, and a bunch of other things.  

I cleaned out leaves from the back corner, then weeded, and then added some mulch in the front and white garden marble in the back.  Originally I bought 3 bags of rock and 1 of mulch, but I had to go back and get another 2 of rock. They are awfully heavy, but don't seem to cover very much ground.  Since the rock was only on sale through yesterday, though, I had to do it the same day. Nothing like a sale to motivate a purchase and some action on a needed project!

I also added 2 rubber paver stones, one on each side, and put a small urn-shaped pot on top of each one.  (I bought the urns on clearance last year at the end of the season.)  I planted "spikes," yellow rose moss, and purple petunias in them.  Hopefully they will fill in nicely and add color to the front of the house throughout the summer.

The final touches were:

• a hanging pot of purple and yellow pansies on a shepherd's crook hanger (both purchased at a significant savings from the Menard's sale)
• my weird little, plastic hedgehog outdoor figurine
• a solar-powered decorative light globe
• the larger rocks previously located by the air conditioner 

Everything looks so much better: neater, cleaner, and more home-y.  This is my first spring/summer house project, and I think it turned out nicely.  Here are some before and after images:

Wall o' Awesome aka Salon-Style Display of Framed Items

I have this wall in my house that is sort of betwixt-and-between.  It creates a sort of faux-hallway connecting my kitchen to my dining area and living room.  I have been thinking for a long time that a salon-style display would be perfect.  (You know, like in old European homes and museums, where frames of all kinds are hung close together, filling whole walls and showing off a huge amount of art all at once.)  Even though this was clearly a great idea, I hadn't really gotten around to trying to do anything, so the wall had been unadorned...until last Christmas.  I used the wall as a place to hang my holiday cards and a variety of winter/Christmas themed words cut out of fancy scrapbook papers. 

That wall looked totally awesome and I loved it!

And then came mid- January, when I could no longer pretend that keeping my bright and cheery decorations up was cool with the world as a whole.  (Ok, yeah. You're right.  It might have been late January.)  After the cards and the brightly colored words came down, the wall was just so....bland.  I started thinking of things I could do with it and I finally decided that the jammed together look was actually a good one.  You see the wall as you walk by it, but it faces in such a way that doing an old-world gallery/salon display wouldn't clutter up an actual room.  

After deciding to do this cool project, I needed to decide what would go on this wall.  I decided on two main utilitarian features: a whiteboard and a keyring holder (which I will describe in future posts).  The I had to find the components for my wall: a wide variety of sizes and styles of picture frames.  

The largest frame was for the whiteboard, and I got it and some others from my mom, who was cleaning out her house.  A fancy-looking-but-made-of-plastic frame  was purchased on clearance and with a coupon from Kohl's.  And all the others were purchased for super-cheap from thrift stores.  I just kept my eyes open for interesting designs, shapes, etc.  Condition didn't matter so much, because I knew that I would be painting them.  And what was in them was completely irrelevant because I wanted to put my own stuff in the frames, anyway.  (The oval frame was a particularly good find, but it had a religious poem in it that had the store selling it as "art" and not just the frame.)  The Kohl's frame was $6, but most were in the $1 to $1.50 range and I'm pretty sure that the most paid for any other frame was $3.00.  Here they all are:

Once I had the frames, I needed to make them look like they belonged together.  I thought about painting them all the same color, but then decided that wasn't the best option.  Instead I purchased 3 different spray paints: a pale grey, a darker grey, and a metallic silver.  The paint I used was a Rustoleum paint+primer that would stick to metal, wood, plastic, etc. 

I took the frames apart, and for those that I couldn't get the glass out of, I covered the glass with paper and scotch tape.  

I decided what color to paint each of the frames, then laid them out on a drop-cloth on my garage floor.  And I opened the garage door, obviously.  

I then spray painted the frames with 2 to 3 coats each.  I tried to do light coats, but I'm not a super-proficient spray-painter at this point, so they were probably heavier than I should have done.  I let them dry for a full day, then moved them inside and let them cure out some more.  

Before I painted the frames, I cut paper shapes (out of old wrapping paper) for each. Then I used them to plan the set-up of the wall.  Here's the plan, in situ:

After getting everything painted and planned, I purchased a variety of 3M Command picture hangers.  They work sort of like locking velcro, but come off the walls and frames like the Command poster adhesives I used in college.  The idea behind the purchase being that they would allow me to keep from putting tons and tons or holes in my wall.  In addition, since they are supposed to be long-lasting, I should be able to take the frames down and change the imagery fairly frequently.  

After getting the hangers up, it was October and time for Halloween decorations.  So instead of putting regular photos and images in the frames, I put creepy artwork (including Munch's "Vampire," Delaroche's "The Execution of Lady Jane Grey," and Fuseli's "Nightmare"), an Edgar Allan Poe "Raven" excerpt, and some paper-crafted stuff (fangs, werewolf, Frankenstein, a black cat, etc.).  

The final project is at the top of this blog post.   My finished, custom gallery wall.  I love it and it will be a great way of displaying photos, art prints/postcards gathered on museum visits, and other stuff that I want to be able to see and share.  

An Experiment in Container Gardening

I have a really nice porch that stretches across the entire back of my townhouse, and last summer I had a small table and a chair out there.  It was a great space to enjoy a cup of tea or a smoothie and read my Sunday newspaper.  This year, I decided to experiment with container gardening.  Partly because I have tons o' space on my porch, partly to see if I can grow something edible, and partly because I think flowers would make my summertime Sunday ritual even better.  

One of my co-worker's kids was selling plants from Gerten's greenhouses for a spring school fundraiser last month.  Perfect timing! I ordered two cherry tomato plants and three 6-packs of mixed-color snapdragons.  (I love, love, love snapdragons!  Pretty, amazing color, and such a cool shape.)  The plants arrived on the 16th and I got them on Monday the 19th.  They lived on the deck in their (sad) little containers until this past weekend, when I actually had some time to devote to them.  

This Sunday I went to the local Menards garden center and bought some gardening supplies, including some smallish pots, a few bamboo u-shaped stakes, a few flowers, and some potting soil.  And then I got planting. Well, OK.  You got me.  First, I finally took my Christmas lights down off my deck railing.  Immediately after that, though, I got planting!

The photo above is a panoramic shot of my brand new set o' pots.  The large tan pots are the tomatoes.  The small, square turquoise pots are pink and yellow rose moss.  The smaller tan pots are geraniums, alternating white and "star."  From what I could tell by not seeing a photo or a real version of the star geranium in full bloom, I think they will be a bright pink and white, but I'm not sure.  The round turquoise pots are the mixed snapdragons.  (In case you are wondering, the cushion for my deck chair is a turquoise-y color, which is why the pots are the color they are....)      

I'm really excited to see how everything grows and blooms, and plan to post photos as they grow.  How cool would it be to have a time lapse set of photos showing growth?  Maybe I'll start taking a photo every day or every other day when I get home from work.  And hopefully by the end of the summer I will be eating my tiny tomatoes and declaring container gardening a success that must be repeated year after year!