Strawberry Coffee

I still can't figure out how to add my photos to my blog. Waiting until I find someone with more tech savvy to help me out.  So my blog will be a little boring. 

This morning I'm getting ready for a visit from my grandson and daughter. Stock the house with food and make the house baby proof. I spent last week stashing boxes of all my crafting projects up in the attic. 

I did try the new coffee hack of adding freeze dried strawberries to your coffee. I give that a 👎.  Not sure why anyone thought this was a good idea. Good thing my grandson likes strawberries. 

Really hate software updates!

Well that didn't work

 

I found out why I was getting blurring images with I was trying to emboss on velvet. Using a stamp mounted on wood will make the image move. Since almost all my red rubber stamps are the old fashion wood mounted, I'm limited on what I can use. As I was doing some tidying up of my craft supplies, I found a very old unmounted set. It worked out very well!  

I really hate when you have to update your computers and they friggin change everything. Like why? I can't add photos to my blog anymore so I have to do a work around, which took me days to figure out. I know someone who's a techie could figure it out but until I find that person I'm going old school. Cut & Paste. 

Comfort Food 2026

One of my comfort foods is fried rice. 
 I usually make it when it's time to clean out my refrigerator and use up all the little bits of veggies. I'm getting much better at not leaving that one little piece of broccoli or cucumber. I wonder why we feel the need to save one little piece? It's not like you can really do anything with it other than watch it wilt away in the bottom of your refrigerator. 

Yes, I picked up another cookbook. Since a lot of recipes I like are from Food 52, I thought I would check it out. In researching who this company was, I found out that American Test Kitchens just purchased it at auction. I'm glad that I found an older copy because I don't have high hopes that ATK will do anything for the brand.

 

Accidental Surprise

I went to Savers on Thursday to drop off and do a little picking. It wasn't senior discount day so it wasn't too busy. I still ended up with a cart full of stuff!

I did find a small pressed glass bowl (sorry no picture, I already have it at CCB) and it had a purple tinge to it. I didn't have my UV light so I gamble ($1.99) it was uranium glass. Got it home and it turned out to be just plain glass. What did surprise me was my measuring cup I use to make my coffee. It was sitting on the counter when I was testing the bowl. It blew up bright green when my UV flashlight passed over it. All this time I thought it was a reproduction! 
 

Tea Leaf Salad Update 2026

This attempt at making a tea leaf salad was way better than last time I tried. It's good but I think I need to add more garlic. It just needs a little more punch of flavor.

The tomatoes are from my garden. Yes my little cherry tomato plant lasted this long. The cold weather we had a few weeks ago finally did it in. I think it may reseed so fingers crossed it will grow again. I will make this recipe again and add the things that fit my taste palette.

Sun Printing 101

Today I did a little more experimenting with sun printing. 

They said if it wasn't really sunny, it would just have to be exposed longer. It was a little overcast this morning and it was a hot failure. Really need bright light to make it work. 

I know you can sun print on fabric so I gave it try when the sun came out. That turned out ok except you can't hang the fabric to dry. The star fish started to bleed and when I realized this was a problem it was too late. The fern one turned out so much better. The next step is to wash the fabric and see what happens. 

 

Tea Leaf Salad 2026

Year ago I went to a Burmese restaurant and everyone said to try the tea leaf salad. Sadly that mom and pop restaurant didn't survive the pandemic. I like it so much I tried to make it home. I wasn't successful at all. 

Now fast forward and when a good friend took me out for lunch to a new Burmese restaurant we of course got the tea leaf salad.  It inspired me to research authentic recipes. Many recipes are dumb down to what you can find in main stream markets. Living in the Bay Area that's not a problem most of the time. I did have a heck of time finding Sencha loose leaf tea. I'm not sure because of the tariffs or it's not something that sells well. I remember seeing it in the store back in the day. Sure miss Imhara's produce! 

I picked this recipe from Food 52 (recommended by a food group) because you have to ferment the dressing for two days. That to me just seemed right to get that extra layer of flavor. It tastes great right out of the blender so we'll see what fermenting does. 

 

Shadow Box Project 2026

One of the many projects I'm working on. This is a gift to one of my daughter's best friends from college. She flew out to Holland to help celebrate her birthday. They both love to travel and this is one of my favorite photo. All the parts for this project sat for weeks on my crafting table waiting for me to decide. 

I'm planning on doing shadow box project with the boys but this one is an adult version. 
 

Waffle Maker Bust

This looked like a good idea for a waffle maker but it was a hot mess. Totally understand why it was discontinued!  

It does make a really thick waffle but getting the right amount into the pan is the hard part. If you measure incorrectly you either get an over flow (which is very hard to clean up) or just a partial waffle with brunt edges. I was using my gluten free ube pancake mix so I give it a little slack for that.  I'm not a waffle pancake fan so I only have the Trader Joe's ube pancake mix because it's a favorite of the boys and Posey. Yes I make the dog pancakes for her snack time. 

It's going back to the thrift store or maybe the recycle bin. 

 

Should I or shouldn't I

I was thinking it would be fun to do hot pot meals when the boys are here. I know my daughter would love it and I think the boys are old enough for it to be safe. Now that Costco has all the fixings it's doable without all the prep. 
I found this noodle pot that is made to heat up fast and stay hot. Normally I don't buy electrical things at thrift stores as you never sure if they work correctly. This one was very clean and didn't look like it was used very much. I think I walked around for about 30 minutes trying to talk myself into getting it. With the 30% senior discount it came to $7.75. And it does work very well. Going to do a test run at some point. 

Cyanotype or Sun Printing

 

This has been on my creative bucket list for a while now. It's also been a project I want to do with the boys when they come to visit this summer. 

I've had all the parts but never the space to be able to practice. Half of the process needs darkness and the other half needs really bright sunlight. They caution you it will be messy but I found it wasn't so bad so long as I took my time, worn gloves and had everything ready. Following the weather reports is part of the process too. Not so important in California except during a rain storm. :)  In bright sunlight it takes just a few minutes, like as soon as  UV light hits the paper fast. I'm going to try this with my UV flashlight just because I have one. :) 

Another thing I didn't know was there is a very short shelf life to the solution once it's been mixed and added to the paper. So again you have to pre plan what you're going to do. In between storms I did a few test runs and it was amazing how fast or slow the process was depending on how bright the sun was. 

My next goal is to try this technique on clothes!

Ski Week Snow 2026

A husky enjoying the snow

I'm not a snow person, not at all.  I'm scheduled to dog sit this week for a family that was planning on going up to Tahoe during ski week. Not sure how the conversation started but I asked my son who works at a ski resort how safe it was to drive up this week with all the storms passing over California. He basically said not a good idea.  He then sent a list of things the family would have to be prepared to do if they didn't take his advice. He topped it off with this picture of his friend's dog. The deck was cleared at 9:00 am and by 3:00 pm this is what it looked like. Don't worry, that's a husky and he loves the snow. Three feet of snow in less than 24 hours, which I guess is a lot. Remember I don't talk snow. The family did decide to cancel going to Tahoe and are making alternate vacation plans. Wise choice.