We Want Bao Bao!!!

Unfortunately, Bao Bao will have to wait a few more days until she gets to meet me.  She was just debuted on Friday (something like a Sip-n-See party, I think), and today was a holiday, so there were 9 bazillion people at the zoo, so the wait was at least two hours long.  I bailed.  I guess some would say I'm not a true panda fan, but that wouldn't be true.  I just understand that there are not very many sunny 50 degree weather days in January around here, and I didn't want to spend it waiting in line.  Bao Bao is a popular little panda, so I'm sure she won't mind waiting.

I did get to see the daddy pandas:

Ok, I totally made that up, I don't know who the daddy is. 

The zoo wasn't a total loss, though.  The orangutans (is that really how it's spelled?)  have this awesome O-line, which is just cables that are strung across this part of the zoo with towers spread out all along, and they can rope along.  I doubt they do it all day, but this little guy put on a show.  

 

This guy will never be my ruler, but he'll let me be queen bee.

I'll be back for you, Bao Bao.  Until then, I'm just gonna nerd out with the panda-cam.

Here's a link to all the pictures from the zoo.

Hallowed Ground

Arlington Cemetery is a pretty amazing place to visit.  I tried not to take too many pictures, but some things were just too pretty to not.  We took a tour bus around, which stops at three of the most "popular" things:
 - The Eternal Flame, where John F. Kennedy, Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis, and two of their babies that died are buried.  Also next to the Eternal Flame are the graves of Robert F. Kennedy and Edward M. Kennedy (Teddy).
 - The Tomb of the Unknown Soldier, where we saw the changing of the guard
 - Lee House, which was the house of Robert E. Lee, but during the Civil War the U.S. Government took over the land to use as a cemetery for Union Soldiers.  They chose the location not only for it's proximity to Washington DC, but also for it's elevation.  They also were strategic in building around the house of the Confederate General, making it difficult and unlikely that he would move back home.

Normally, the Lee House would be open for viewing, but we had the unfortunate luck of having it be closed on the day we went.  I will have to go back and see it on a day that it will be open!  It was cold and windy while we were there.

At the Eternal Flame.  I like this picture, I think it's so beautiful how you can see the uniform headstones rolling in the background. 

The cross at the bottom left is the grave for Robert F. Kennedy.  The building in the background is a part of Lee House.  I don't know if the flag always flies at half mast, or if it was lowered for someone in particular. 

In less frigid temperatures, this is a reflecting pool.  I love this quote from RFK. 

The Tomb of the Unknown Soldier. 

Changing of the Guard at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier

After the tour, we drove over to the Iwo Jima Memorial.  That one is special to me because of my Grampa.  He was in the Marines in WWII and was wounded at Bougainville.  I would have liked to have gone there with him, or been there when he had seen the Memorial, but he's probably not going to be traveling down to DC any time soon.

Capitoling

I moved! I've been in DC for two months, I've had two sets of visitors (not including my aunt who helped me move down here...), and I haven't done nearly as much as I originally intended.  There are three new lists on the sides of the blog.  The left side is the list of things that I WANT to do while living here.  I'm going to constantly update it.  The right side list is a list of restaurants/bakeries/eateries that I want to eat at.  The list below that is a list of food places that I tried and want to go back to.

I'm now accepting visitors and reservations for visitors.  Come see my pretty apartment, right by Eastern Market and the Capitol Building, House side.  Take a look at the lists and let me know where we're going!

Moving in November is a crummy time to move.  It was too cold to do much exploring right off the bat.  I'm hoping to take one day each week to go and see a new museum.  So far I've been to two: 

 - Freer Gallery of Art/Sackler Gallery

 - Newseum

The Freer Gallery was okay.  It was small, it's one of the Smithsonians.  The Sackler Gallery is part of it, and it's below ground.  The two "Galleries" focus on Asian Art. 

This is the garden at the Sackler Gallery, which has a view of the Smithsonian Castle. 

My Bed is a Chevron

I wanted a headboard.  I needed a headboard.  The pillows kept falling in that crack behind the bed, and it was driving me nutty.  I thought "I'll have Ian help me make a headboard.  It will be easy!"  So I pinned.  And we brain stormed.  And this is what we came up with.  I don't know how I lived without a headboard for so long. 

Can you tell it's a chevron?  It was pretty easy to make.  The hardest part was figuring out what length to cut the boards so that they would fit.  Here's a quick picture tutorial of how to make it.

Supplies you'll need:
A bed (duh)
A work space (In this case, it was an orchard store house.  And it was cold, that's why I'm wearing a hat)
2 posts for the side
1 post for the middle
1 plank to go across the top
many boards to form your chevron
3 (or more) boards to run across the back to support your chevron boards
1 wide board to attach it to your bed frame (sorry there's no pictures of that part)
tools (like a saw and such - that's not my department)
screws, bolts, la la la
music

Once you have all your posts and top shelf measured out, you'll need to notch the posts so that your back support boards fit into them.

Girl's got skills with a hammer

If you don't have goggles, you can wear sunglasses.

Screw your support planks into your side and middle posts.

Here's your frame from the back!

Start measuring out your chevron boards.  We found that the best way to do this was to start in the middle with the longest board, cut it, screw it in place, and then measure from there.  If you have this fancy saw that's pictured there, you can line up a 45 degree angle, and so most of the measuring is done for you.

As you go along, screw your boards into the three boards in the back. 

We ended up adding a board across the top to hold all those little midge boards in place, and then as you can see, a few other little pieces to hold things in place. 

From the front!

Sand the whole thing down.

And then start staining!  The beauty of this design is that you can pick out any stain you want, you could paint it, or you could leave it just plain wood. 

I think Ian's proud of our handiwork.  

The slanted ceilings in my loft make it difficult to photograph, but I think it looks great!

Cowgirl Cookies - Just Hold the Nuts

I wanted to make something new.  And I wanted to do something with these chia seeds that I bought a few months ago with high self-expectations of becoming healthy.  (Before all those New Years Resolutions popped in...)  And then I also figured out this holiday season that I'm no longer allergic to coconut.  So it was pretty much a trifecta pointing me in this direction. 

Have you ever had Cowboy Cookies?  They are awesome.  Like, I saw them at this bakery yesterday, and I wanted to move in there and just eat Cowboy Cookies all day long, awesome.  JFGI.  And since I always think I can do things better, I attempted.  Here's my attempt... 

Cowgirl Cookies are like Cowboy Cookies, except healthy, and nut-less.  (Like Cowgirls)

Recipe:
2 cups all purpose flour
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp salt

2 sticks (1 cup) butter - softened to room temperature
3/4 cup brown sugar
3/4 cup white sugar

2 eggies
1 tsp vanilla
1/2 cup old-fashioned oats (don't waste your time with instant or stuff like that)
1/8 cup (I think that's like 2 tablespoons) chia seeds (they're good for you, JFGI)
1 cup chocolate chips
3/4 cup butterscotch chips
3/4 cup shredded coconut

As you would with all cookie recipes,  mix together your butter and two sugars.  Once they are creamy, add in the eggs and vanilla and mix that up until they are just incorporated. 

In a separate bowl, whisk together your dry ingredients - flour, baking soda/powder, and salt.  Slowly (in 3 parts) add this to your butter/sugar/eggs combo.  Mix them until they are just combined.  

With a wooden spoon add in, one at a time, the oats, chia, chippies, and coconut.  This part takes some elbow grease, so get your guns out.  (Not literally, just figuratively.)

Scoop them onto a parchment paper-lined cookie sheet with a tablespoon or cookie scoop.  (Just a side note - the rationale behind making these into huge cookies is that they have so many great parts, the oats, the chia, the chips and coconut, that if you made small ones, you might miss something.  So huge it is.  Bigger is always better.

Bake at 350°F for about 11 minutes, until the edges are browned and the tops are tan-ish.  If you want them crispy, bake them for longer.  I like my cookies soft, so I tend to under bake.  Let them cool on a wire rack then enjoy!  

Makes approx 2 dozen large cookies

(can you see those cute little chia seeds?)

Put a Skirt Around My Christmas Tree!!

Hey y'all!  It's been a crazy few weeks.  I've been working mad hours lately, having minimal time for crafting.  But, I managed to get this done, and I love it.  I can't wait to get my first real big-girl tree to put it around!!

My Hexie Tree Skirt!

The hardest part of this was figuring out the measurements.  I like to do my patterns on graph paper, I'm old-school like that.  It's a little hard to see.  But, you have to cut each piece of fabric  into a triangle.  If you have a triangle shape form, your angles will be 30°, 60°, and 90°.  I found it easiest to trace it on to a piece of poster board, and then I could cut my fabric off that pattern.  

The measurements of each triangle are: 24" x 13.86" x 27.7" - that's why it's easiest to measure out your angles. If you're not good at math... you might have to rewind your brain to high-school geometry.  I just knew that I wanted my final measurements to be 48" across.  That's how I got the 24".  Don't get crazy worrying about the math... there's lots of websites that will calculate lengths of sides for you, you just have to plug a couple numbers in. 

So obviously the hardest part of any project is to pick out your fabric.  For the tree skirt you will need: 

• 6 different matching fabrics for your top pieces (I wish I could tell you how much you will need of each.  I always just buy a yard of everything, so it's hard to estimate.  You want these pieces to be at least 14" wide, so a 1/4 yard wouldn't work, but a 1/2 yard would, or anything bigger than that. 
• Fabric for your binding (probably 3/4 yard or more, depending on how wide you want it)
• Backing fabric - because the final size is 48" around, you'll need 2 yards to piece it all together
• Matching ribbon - I used a 1" width, but you could go wider.  If you're buying by the yard, you'll just need about 1 yard. 

If you've sewn/quilted before, the rest is pretty self explanatory... but in summary:

• Cut out all your triangles
• Sew them together with a quarter inch seam (don't worry about the centers, since you'll be cutting them out for a hole for your tree) 
• You want to make sure to leave one side open, which will go in the back of the tree, as you can see in the final product pictures.  It may seem as though your sides don't match up on your open seam, but don't worry, once you cut out the center and add the binding up the side, it will be just right.
• Make your backing piece
• Make your quilting sandwich, putting your backing fabric right-side down, then your batting, then your top.  Pin it all over to keep all the pieces in place.
• Quilt it together.  You can use a walking foot if you have one.  I don't, and it manages to come out okay.  
• Once you have the whole thing quilted, find something round and the right size for your opening in the center.  Trace it, and cut it out.  At this point, I zig-zag stitched around the center and just left it like that.

As you can see, I quilted a quarter inch off of each seam.  

• Next you'll want to add on your binding.  Because of the fabric I chose, with the letters, I made my own double-fold bias tape.  There's lots of different ways to do bindings.  If you don't know how, I put a couple links at the bottom.  For this, I chose to run the binding all the way up the opening but I skipped the round opening because I didn't like the way the fabric got kind of bunched up around the circle.

• The final step is totally optional.  But I think it adds a nice touch.  Cut your ribbon to a length long enough to be tied into a pretty bow.  You'll want 4 equal lengths.  Pin your ribbon onto the edges of your opening, spaced as you wish. 
• Here, I sewed the ribbon on.

And just a repeat picture so you can see the final product again. :)

Here's a couple links:

Inspiration

More Inspiration

Binding Tutorials

Monthly Give - November

Note:  This has nothing to do with butter, baking or crafts.  I'm branching out.

I've been seeing a lot of people on FB posting things that they're thankful for during the month of November. I like this idea, and it made me think about something that I used to do when I was living in Boston.  A friend of mine would organize a "monthly give", where every month she would choose a charity/organization/idea and her friends could come together and donate.  

This is my version.  I'm challenging all of my friends to participate with me.  November's monthly give will be donating dry goods or grocery gift cards to a food bank.  Since we all live in different areas, I'll list a couple food banks in different cities.  If you live in Maine, you can give me your donations and I will drop them all off before the end of the month.  (If I get a lot before Thanksgiving, I will make two drop-offs.)  Of course, if you want to make your own drop-off, feel free :)

I realize that it's hard to donate now, but even if it's just one or two boxes of food, every bit helps!  And, feel free to pass this on and challenge your own friends.  Let's start a movement. 

Here's a list of food banks:

Portland/Maine:
Good Shepherd Food-Bank

Boston:
Greater Boston Food-Bank

Or, Find a Food Bank in your Area