There is a lot of doing going on around here.
This winter I had wanted to have prepared an herbal medicine chest before we all succumbed to the sniffles, but that didn't happen. Of course there are many months left of shivering and runny noses, so I decided to make the least complicated and easiest to hand remedy I could find. The ingredients (horseradish, hot peppers, onions, garlic, and ginger) are readily available and will probably render you an odiferous pariah after consuming. Bypassing a cold is surely worth the shunning you will inevitably experience. Spooning it out of the food processor and into a jar was an intensely cleansing experience, with lots of eye watering and nose flaring. After it soaks for ten days in apple cider vinegar I'll strain it and it will be ready to burn the hell out of infections. I'll let you know how it turns out and if we still have working vocal cords afterwards. Recipe here.
I built a cabinet. I know that I should be yay(!) but when I look at it I see its many flaws and I know I could do better. Yet there must always be a first. It also feels like cheating to say I built it because I did have some help from The Simple Man because I have very weak wrists (years of cashiering and general abuse = carpal tunnel) and I'm afraid of the table-saw. I did most of it though, and while the plan was from here, I altered it on my own. I've now taken everything off it that I had carelessly tossed there and am about to throw it down and add a door, back, and the top. Hopefully. Eventually it will hold our dishes and other kitchen items. I'll be painting it but I'm vacillating between white, grayish white, or a lovely chalk paint Provence Blue.
I've been wanting to make my own sour cream from this recipe for a long time. I finally remembered to buy cream and buttermilk and made some last weekend. Although I had to let it sit for 48 hours to achieve the right consistency, instead of the suggested 24, I was really impressed by how it came out. It tastes amazing and cannot be easier to make. Mine is yellowish because I used organic cream from grass fed cows, it tends to be buttery coloured.
I like to make things, but I've always been firmly in the "useful" items category - knitted cupcakes might be adorable but I cannot understand the need for them. In the last month, however, my eldest's interest in knitting has exploded and the house is strewn with yarn. She's been wanting me to show her how to crochet and requested lessons on how to make a heart. So I poked around and I found this pattern. And yes, they are terribly, terribly cute.
All this goes, except the long piece of wood in the middle. I'm still using that ;)
When I first started my Great Purge, I started with the basement. It was horrible and overwhelming but I kept at it. I knew I wouldn't get everything done because it just wasn't possible at the time and I wanted to get rid of the obvious and then make my way upstairs. After all this time, living in our fairly minimalist home, the basement has still been festering. But lately we've been talking quite often, though tentatively, about moving and just the thought of having to deal with the basement during the stress of moving galvanized me into action. Whether we move or not, we win. On Monday I spent 8 hours down there, getting the bulk of it done. Things have changed in the year and half or so since I first braved it, and now I'm able to get rid of more baby/child items, like strollers (Thank God! Those jogging strollers are monsters). I'd already taken the books I didn't want to the basement a year ago but after lugging 6 boxes to a used bookstore, spending an hour hanging out waiting for them to be gone through, and then offered only $37 dollars for a huge amount of books in excellent condition, I'm done with that. I'll be donating these to whoever will take them; I'd rather have someone who loves to read get them than go through all that for such a piddling amount of change.
We're feeling much better! Ready to start the New Year, nearly a month late, but I don't think I'm off to such a bad start :)
