Category: Uncategorized

Cookie fail

On By CarynIn Uncategorized

I wanted to make cookies and my youngest wanted to make brownies, so we went looking for a brownie cookie recipe (the cookie brownie recipe will be for another day.) We found a recipe that called for piping the dough onto the cookie sheet to make perfect circles, which seemed intriguing. It was a fail. The cookies did not spread into perfect circles, but stayed in their piped form.

Photo description: brown cooked dough in piped spirals that look more like poop emojis than cookies

I think that I didn’t whip the sugar and egg together well enough. The “cookie” was grainy. They also didn’t taste all that great. Back to the drawing board.

Mystery solved

On By CarynIn Cats, Uncategorized

I didn’t understand how and why the crocheted cotton coverlet on the bed was ending up wadded up in a heap. I suspected cat action, but it took a few days to catch the culprit in the act.

Photo description: 17 pound gray tabby cat sitting on a crocheted lace coverlet, looking like he’a about to start something
Photo description: gray tabby cat under a crocheted lace blanket with his tail and back paw sticking out

The cat is bored and looking for trouble. He really needs to stop being afraid of the cat flap and go out into the catio again.

Digging discovery

On By CarynIn Uncategorized

Our driveway regularly floods when it rains, and takes awhile to dry out because of the angles and build up of silt and leaves. The silt gets slippery and we are having an unusually wet summer, so it makes the surface treacherous. I thought if I dig out the corner and place a flag stone, I might reduce the erosion. I stated digging and was quite surprised to find a drain buried under a couple inches of dirt.

Photo description: drain unearthed in the corner where the sidewalk meets the driveway

The drain connects to a similar drain on the opposite side of the driveway that I unearthed a few years ago. One mystery solved. Surprisingly, the pipe that connects the two drains is not plugged with dirt and water sprayed into the newly excavated drain goes out, under the driveway, to the other side. Now to figure out a way to keep dirt from building up and blocking it again. Hm.

Stereoscopic in the woods

On By CarynIn photography, Uncategorized

I took a walk in my woods with my phone and tried taking some more stereoscopic photos. These are all parallel view (I still can’t do cross view, and my eyes ache from trying.)

Photo description: a look into the woods between two trees, this one doesn’t have much depth, it is mostly foreground and background
Photo description: path up a hill through the woods, this one came out better, there are objects in the middle distance that help set up the depth and I feel like the framing works
Photo description: path through a thicket, this is my favorite of the three here, there is a branch in the foreground that comes forward, and all the brambles next to the path give a nice sense of depth

Here are my tricks when I’m having trouble merging the two photos to see the 3D image: take off my glasses or put them on, make sure there isn’t a glare on the screen, move the screen closer then farther away. There are some images that I simply cannot get the trick to work, sometimes it is the day or hour, and sometimes I suspect poor composition. My favorite stereoscopic (and stareograms) images are the ones so well done that it just pops together with very little effort.

Potholder: twill

On By CarynIn Uncategorized

I’m running out of cotton loops for my regular sized potholder loom. I have enough for one more, and the colors are not what I would pick given infinite variety (which is why they are last). To maximize potential, I counted the loops and divided each color in half. I put them on the pin loom in blocks of color, so I didn’t come up short one color in a more complicated pattern. I did want to try a twill pattern, and chose a 2/2 twill, which means over 2, under 2. The start point of twill moves over one strand with each pass, which makes the diagonal lines.

Photo description: purple, red, orange, and pink loops on a potholder loom with a third of the twill weaving pattern started and the weaving hook inserted for the next pass
Photo description: twill potholder finished with a chain stitch
Photo description: six potholders made from one Harrisville Designs kit. From top left to right: plain weave with rainbow order chain finished, light green and dark green plain weave with alternating colors chain finished, twill pattern chain finished, twisted warm and cool colors three sides chain finished, warm colors vs cool colors with 90 degree wraps chain finished, and purple vs rainbow 90 degree wraps loop threaded finish.