you're gonna wait for me regarless

Post Secret Connection



I do that sometimes. 

 The cross walk is my part of the road.  If I'm jay walk'n I run, but in that yellow area (and if the light is the appropriate crosswalk walking color) I can choose whatever speed I like. 

I know... I'm such a rebel.

Ceramics for Christmas

For christmas my mom purchased a kiln for me.  She found it at an estate sale and talked to me about it, but once I didn't hear anything else I figured she didn't go to the estate sale.  It was out in Rancho, it made sense.  But she did get it and that was quite the Christmas surprise.  I would have tried it out before now, but I've been sick since Christmas.

So basically I've run  my test batch a bisque.  I stuck some green ware sculptures into the kiln and have been firing it for 6 hours about.  The auto timer is running.  This will tell me if the auto timer works, because I'm currently missing a small but important part of the kiln that turns off the kiln automatically after the combination of the right amount of time and temperature as occurred.

I'm flying blind here.  I've never fired anything.  But this little kiln is supposed to be pretty easy.  We shall see!!

I used 06 cone, 04 cone, and 03 cone.  My hope is that I would be able to reach 04 cone which is from what I can tell, the recommended heat for a bisque.   How ever the plate on the side of my kiln is troubling.  It claims that max temp for the kiln is about 1200 F.  Which is acually pretty low..  around 018 low.  But that same plaque claims the kiln can reach Cone 02.

I'm running a test batch.  I don't even know if 6 hours of baking and the appropriate amount of time cooling is right, but at least I had some cones in there.  Maybe something will have happened.  I do wish I'd put some of the lower cones into the kiln so I could see that it at least went up past those cones.  would have been helpful.  Since I only used the higher cones (03-06) they may not be bent at all.

TEST!!

I'm hoping to bring it with me to the apartment, but I'm not sure that the apartments electrical system can handle it.  Perhaps I should purchase a fire extinguisher. 

To ant or not to ant

A few months ago I got hit with Summer Ants.  It's something that I've grown up with for years. It was so engrained in my life that I didn't believe it was possible to have summer with out the little buggers.  This year is the first time in my 3 years of being in my current place that I've run into this problem.  Sugar supplies must have been low because they found their way into every single sugar item I own.

It occurred to me that now was the perfect time to test out a organic remedy for ants that I'd seen on Pintrest at some point.  Corn Meal. What?  That's my first thought when I read the post.  These people must be wrong.

The idea is that you put down some corn meal, and the ants eat it or bring it back to the nest and apparently they can't digest the stuff, so they die.  The entire colony or a large portion of it, because I suppose they eat the stuff before anyone figures out what is going on.

So I pour a bowl of corn meal and place it to the spot where I traced the ants to, behind the biggest couch in my house.  And nothing.

As you can see, there are no ants crawling over the edges to get to the cornmeal feast I have laid out. They apparently care for the stuff so little, that even when bribed with a dead fly sprinkled with Corn meal they couldn't care less.

You can kind of seen the ants in that picture, and accept to pull the fly out, they never went into the corn meal.  Basically ignored it completely.


These ants also appeared to completely ignore the generic ant traps that I bought after the corn meal failed to rid my house of the darn things. So perhaps it's just a case of the super smart ant tribe?  Once I boxed up all the sugar items they could find and kept washing any sugary dishes I ate, they disappeared.  I may never know the real reason.

Greek Yogurt: Opinion Trials

Greek yogurt is a tasty snack that all the health nuts seem to love so much that they probably bathe in it.  It seems like it might be something worth looking into, but at the same time you can't always trust healthy hippies.  My first purchase was of a Trader Joe's "Greek Style Honey Yogurt" in an 8 oz plastic container which I used to make a bread.  It was from the left over greek yogurt that I finall tried the Greek yogurt.

I enjoyed it.  Yogurt is something that I find tastey but often have problems with the texture of normal yogurt.  So I'm elated!  This is an exciting moment!  I've gotten a chance at eating yogurt regularly.  Mixing up my morning routine.

 So, I figure I'd give it an actually try.

I bought another 8ounces of Trader Joe's "Greek Style Honey Yogurt." It's little yellow container brightening up my otherwise bland fridge. It's just as good as the first time. Have a thicker but creamy texture that allows me to eat spoonfuls without inciting a gag reflex.  And I find the flavor delightful.  A light honey taste with a bit of the tart-ness of a plain yogurt.  Refreshing almost.  I've also tried the "Greek Style Vanilla Yogurt" of the same brand/type.  It's also great.

But it's a bit more expensive than I like my yogurt to be.  The next logical step is to try every other honey  Greek yogurt that I can find to run a taste test to discover which brand I like the best, and possibly a back up brand in case that one gets shut down.

Boy are there a lot of yogurts out there.

Another Trader Joe's Yogurt would logically be a good first step. So I bought a bunch.

Big mistake.. This version of the greek yogurt as a gritty texture which is unpleasant.  It almost has a feeling of being dry.  But had a similar texture to your typical everyday yogurt.  A huge let down as I had to eat, gross honey, gross blueberry, and gross pomegranate.

The Lucerne Greek Non Fat Yogurt Tick and Creamy Honey defied it's name.  Such a shame.  I quite enjoy the other Lucerne products that are milk based... cheese, cottage cheese.. you know cheese..

It was not thick and creamy.  It was basically similar to any other yogurt in thickness.  What really struck me was the two after tastes.  Not just one, but TWO!  The first flavor that I tasted after finishing swallowing was something akin to funny grape juice.  It was tart, but had something extra going on.  Then it shifted into something with an overwhelming iron flavor that reminded me of when I got knocked in the mouth during a soccer game, the flavor of blood pooling in my mouth.  Needless to say I won't be going back to them anytime soon.

With regards to Chobani, more dashed hopes. More strange after tastes.

The texture was good, the thickness was good, but the strange after taste similar to  stomach acid just isn't cutting it.  Not a Greek yogurt that I can get behind. Being reminded of having the stomach flu or getting sick after eating candy and going on a ridiculous roller coaster... unpleasant.

I tried Open Nature's Honey Greek.

It had similar problems to the other's already mentioned..  A good thickness but still had a lightly gritty texture and even that acidic after taste.  While less offensive than the others, still not on my purchase list.

My last taste test greek yogurt was Dannon Oikos Greek Nonfat Yogurt.  This only came in Vanilla so it had to do.

I must say that I liked it.  It had a good texture and thickness and was super sweet.  Not something I was expecting from the greek yogurt, as compared to all the other types I tried.  But it works as a back up.

My favorites are still Trader Joe's "Greek Style Honey Yogurt."

If only the crowning jewels came in larger sizes...

Wall Art Finished!

Finally, after a few months of the project just sitting on the floor my comic inspired wall art is finished and hanging.

 All the work up there took a while to get used to.  I first hug BAM and felt like it was way to much color. So it took a while to get the rest of them up there.

And I love the Kablam!!  It's a call back to my child hood.  the show Kablam was a great way to spend some time laughing.

Future Project: Magnetic Station

My galley kitchen sticks out into part of my living area. The back of the hanging cabinets are pretty bland.   painted it to match the walls and everything just feels super boring. As you can see, I've been drawing on post it notes and sticking them up there, but it's not really helping.

I would love to cover them in sheet metal or cork board.  It would be a great place to tack notes, hang thoughts about school, or even put pictures up! It would make my small living space so much nicer. 

In my endevors to get cork or steel sheeting, I've learned that it is very expensive.  To cover the 2' x 9' expanse with either of the materials it will cost upwards of $80, which blows my mind. So the project got temporarily put on hold due to lack of funds. 

What I needed was some brainstorming.

I need a new way to make my magnetic dreams come true!! 

Then it hit me.  Thrift stores, Good Wills, and Salvation Armys always tend to have lots and lots of cookie sheets and interesting trays.  Maybe I'll start collecting them until I have enough to piece together a message center with interesting metal trays!! 

Sounds like a plan to me. More updates on this adventure as I begin my collecting.  Unless I find some super cheep cork or metal sheets before then.

Knives

It's about time that my kinfe block got a new life.  The block is a large chunk of dark wood that eats up space.  But as I'm not yet a huge fan of the magnetic strips attached to the walls, I'm thinking that I've got to find a way to liven this baby up rather than replacing it with a modern storage form.

The knives themselves were hand me downs from my parents, and have been going strong since before I was born.  Now the wear and tear is getting pretty obvious.  The handles have lost their luster.  The protective poly coating is basically gone.  And on the knives that get really frequent use the stain is disappearing.

Below is the close up, they're lacking shimmer and shine.  These poor knives appear tired.  

 

So right now I'm in the process of sanding the handles down.   I'm going to have to look up what's the best way to re-liven them.  My instincts say re-stain and coat with polyurethane.  But I may just be treating them like cabinets, and am unsure of the food safety level of polyurethane. Whatever I use I want it to be food safe and water proof, as knives will find themselves in and around food and water. 

Silly Apps

I just came across a silly app that lets you transform photos into posters. It made my freaking day.
So I figured that it would be great fun to make posters with pictures of my friends.

 

Those double made my day.  It was an enjoyable way to waste some time. And reminded me of why I freaking love my friends. 

Thirsty Days

Spending many days on break with friends is wonderful.  It was a day of playing in Redlands.

Thought these two trees were fantastic. Smooth and pearly white.  They had wonderful shapes in their growing branches. 

We ate at a tasty pizza place, Gormet Pizza, in down town Redlands.  they do all sorts of wild things with pizza.  There was one that was basically a hamburger.  Check it out.  Delicious! And the down town area is super cute.

 Hanger 24 is a regional brewery in the Redlands area and it is a neat hidden gem.  Not heavily trafficked it didn't take forever to get your drinks and enjoy yourself. Newly created patio area had benches and umbrellas which was just what you needed. 

It was a good day!

That Wonderful First

About ME
I'm a California girl and have spent majority of my life living in the fine town of Riverside.  I am a driven, energetic, positive individual. I live my life with the understanding that goodness is a by product of positive actions and thoughts. This leads me to continually attempt to cultivate a positive and effective manner in my life.

Education
I graduated from Chapman University in Orange, California with my Bachelors Degree in Theatrical Studies. My time there was priceless to me.  I studied everything I could, from Theatre to Anthropology, Psychology to Food Science, and even the Ancient Greek Language. I am currently pursuing a Masters Degree in Occupational Therapy.

Aspirations
It is my greatest hope to lead a life that I can be proud of. I want nothing more than to look back, see the choices I made, and know that they were the right ones no matter where I end up. I believe that the journey is just as important as getting to the destination.

That being said, I am currently juggle my education with my art hobbies through acting, puppetry, and video creation.  Crafting and Ceramics will always have a spot in my heart. I enjoy sewing, crochet, and anything involving clay. I have found working with my hands to be the most challenging and enjoyable work that I could hope for.