Holy crap, Shock Stock 2012 took place last weekend and I am still completely exhausted! I have been working constantly on the 1600+ photos from the weekend, and so I will be making three posts highlighting some of the best moments from each day. Due to the size of this project, I think it’s understandable if I take a little extra time, but be assured that I will have all three posts up by the end of this Saturday! For now, enjoy this sneak peak:
{Disclaimer: Okay, I admit I said that I was going to post this yesterday… remember when I said I don’t go on when my partner is home? Well he got home early yesterday so here we are!}
On Monday, in my never-ending quest to try new things, I decided to try to sprout some of the Chia seeds that we have in the pantry (normally for eating purposes). I had been wanting to grow micro greens for a little while now, and so when I realized that I actually had a type already, I had to do it immediately. This is the website that provided me with all of my information on sprouting (not that I followed it perfectly but still), they also have more info on other greens and plant life.
Step One! Place a single layer of seeds into a shallow dish of some sort (I used a spoon rest for this initial experiment). I have since realized that I was not supposed to put so many so close together, but they still seem to be growing okay.
Step Two! Put just enough water into the dish to cover the seeds, then let it rest where no kitties will disturb it.
After an hour or so, the water will turn into a type of gel, this is because Chia seeds are a Mucilaginous seed (and this is essentially what allows us to grow them without any soil).
Here you can see how thick the gel that forms actually is.
(sorry for the bad photo, late at night!) This is a full day and a few hours after "planting" them, you can see the hulls already being shed and the sprouts coming out like little worms.
Once the sprouts started growing, I covered the dish and put it in the sun. I did this on the fourth day.
So, now I can start to see my first fuck up, being too many seeds on the plate (I doubt the ones in the middle will grow at this point, I may just scoop them out so that the rest have a better chance of success). The sprouts that are coming up are starting to turn green though!
Not Chia seeds, but I snapped this photo yesterday after taking this loaf out of the oven. I really want a proper bread pan, so that I can make bread that is not perfectly round (or super oblong), but I am still kind of impressed with how quickly and easily I can make a loaf of bread now.
I plan on trying to grow a lot more micro greens over the summer, now to just find seeds…
UPDATE:
Since I wrote most of this on Monday, added to it yesterday, and am posting it today, I thought it would best to post the most updated photos available. Over the night those little sprouts managed to do a lot:
Green sprouts!!
Thanks for reading, if you have any tips or advice, or if I have done something that is terribly incorrect, please let me know in the comments! I haven’t done this before, and I would probably be described as having a black thumb.
xoxo
So, I admit that my scheduled Tuesday and Thursday posting has become a little.. lax over the past few weeks. With me posting a day late, or in this week’s case not even getting in my Tuesday post at all (despite the fact that I wrote it on Monday). When I first made my blog schedule, I was still only working as Swiss Chalet, where my work schedule was mostly Thursday through Sunday nights. Now, at Michaels, I tend to work more during the week, including day shifts. This does make it more difficult to post on those days, since I only go on the computer when my partner is not home (we don’t get a lot of time together as it is, and so we agree to not be distracted by technology whenever possible). I think that allowing myself a two day period to get posts in should work fine, and allow for my constantly fluctuating work schedule. So, I won’t feel bad anymore if I post on Wednesday, instead of Tuesday, or on Friday instead of Thursday.
Another thing that I have been struggling with lately is the issue of my website: www.sweatereyes.com
(Depending on when you click that link, it may or may not work anymore)
So, my website’s paid for domain and hosting is going to expire *really* soon, as in, next Monday kind of soon. I had been meaning to deal with it for a while now.. but I never managed to make time for it. I have been debating whether or not to keep the domain, the possibility of the domain being purchased by someone else seems a little unlikely. (Who else uses this name? Based on google search results, no one). But relying on that idea makes me feel uncomfortable, despite the fact that before I had the website the fear of someone taking it never even crossed my mind. I know that I do not plan on staying with Yola for a paid domain regardless. It is not that I am unhappy with Yola, its just I simply don’t have the time to maintain a paid website as much as I want to, and I don’t intend on making time for it right now. Since I have been focusing more on this blog, I have been considering wordpress.org, in order to have a blog focused website that allows better “website” features than wordpress.com blogs. In short, I want my blog to be more integrated with my website (If I am to have a website at all). For now, I intend on keeping up my Yola site as a free site, meaning that the URL is going to be different. I will probably be taking it down in the next few months though.
Any who, I have been pretty busy this week. I painted a feature wall in my kitchen, I love how it brightens up the room. I will be posting my second post later this afternoon, as I will be updating the post with a few more photographs, you will have to wait to see what it is about.
Everyone loves how mixed lighting can be a pain, le sigh. (The most accurate colour is seen in the top left hand corner)
{2011 Project}
Wow! I can’t believe I never posted about this baby! I thought I already had, but I must be crazy because it doesn’t seem to be anywhere. Any who, this was a large commission, and included two plushies: Haku (dragon from Spirited Away) and Chihiro (protagonist from Spirited Away). Haku is easily the largest plush I have ever made. He is approximately 3.5 feet long, and is made from an up-cycled white blanket, vintage button eyes, eco-felt for details, up-cycled cotton sheets, and stuffed with eco-fill. Chihiro is a simple doll, I made her from a modified version of my Sailor Zoisite pattern. She is made entirely of eco-felt, with vintage button eyes and eco-fill stuffing.
Thoughts and criticisms always welcome!
xoxo
Remember a few weeks ago I posted a few WIP shots of a small table I was re-painting? Well, I admit that it did take me a little longer to finish than I originally anticipated/ hoped/ wanted. But that is usually how things go. Technically, I shouldn’t say that it is finished, but for the time being, it is (I still plan on giving it a nice new knob, instead of the poopy old one, but in the interest of me wanting the table done and not being able to find the perfect knob right now, I decided to at least spray paint the old one a bright red).
So here it is:
Oh, and just a quick reminder what this puppy looked like before:
Before!!
I like how the colours turned out, and I’m happy that they matched together as nicely as I had planned. I like how the “spots” on the side turned out. I covered the front of the drawer with hand-dyed fabric. My biggest complaint with the Martha Stewart paint is that it is very “soft”. No matter how long I let it dry, you could easily scratch the paint off with a finger nail. I ended up using a clear acrylic spray gloss to protect it, which also gave it a nicer finish (previously the paint was called a velvet?). It’s not very glossy, but I like it. Did I mention that, with supplies, this table only cost me $10.44 (tax included!) AND I still have more than half of my purchased supplies left? Fuck yeah DIY.
I think I will need to take better photos of this table though. I plan on doing some internet overhauls soon. My website’s domain expires very soon, and I need to decide whether or not I will keep my website up. Decisions!
Thanks for taking the time to check out my work.
xoxo
