Cowl Mania

	L to R starting with top L: Clever Cowl, Blended Cowl, Fuyu Cowl in grey and "Bonsai," (middle L) Fuyu Cowl in natural and "Dragon Dance," Maurice Cowl, Maurice front view, (bottom L) Marice back view. I have been making a lot of cowls lately.  I never really wanted a cowl before, but something suddenly changed, and now I can't stop making them.  The most recent is Maurice, by one of my favorite designers.  I actually bought the pattern--also something I almost never do--as part of a trio (The Short-Row Stripes Cowl Trio).  The second and third cowl patterns have not been released yet, but after finishing Maurice, I have nothing on my needles.   To be clear, these are not all for me, and one has already gone to its intended recipient. -吴碧芙

Birdhouse in your soul

Recently Kavi has become a usurper.  For three years, Roscoe was the only one who would dare sleep in the fabric birdhouse my mom and I made for inside their cage.  For the past month, Kavi has been sleeping there every night.  If Roscoe is clever and gets to the house before him, Kavi sits on the perch below and bites Roscoe's tail.  While Roscoe is happily eating popcorn, Kavi sees the window of opportunity and captures the coveted spot. 


So we decided to make some cage improvements over the weekend.  We got small amounts of nice-looking fabric, and I made a pattern out of newspaper.  Cut.  Sew.  Iron.  Repeat.

It turned out to be kind of a rag-tag compilation because I hate the amount of precision and technique needed in sewing.  It doesn't hang straight.  It pulls in weird places.  I thought the sewing machine would break from sewing through multi-layered parts of the house.

But it turns out that birds don't care about technique, whether seams are straight, or whether the colors really go together.  I'm not planning to show this as a 4-H project or anything.  Birds just care about whether or not it functions, whether or not it's scary, and whether or not it will collapse while they are inside.  I guess it works, it's not too scary, and it appears structurally sound because Roscoe slept in the new house last night, while Kavi slept in the old house.

...And the order of the universe was restored.

-吴碧芙

Take 2

Our second attempt turned out better, especially on the frosting front.  On the cookie front, incomparable because I just bought a sugar cookie mix and called it "done."  

For the frosting, we pained on watered-down royal icing in white.  Then, we piped on runny royal icing in green and blue.  They turned out awesome!  

Just for the record, we used two types of brushes to paint the base coat on the cookies.  One was a boar bristle 1" basting brush made by OXO.  The other was a silicone basting brush that we have had lying around in the drawer.  I went to Michael's again and I did see some small brushes made by Wilton, but I had already talked to the experts at the local kitchen shop, who said a basting brush would work, and they were right!

-吴碧芙

Incredible

...but inedible.  Our first attempt with Royal Icing went rather well.  I made the dough last night and baked the cookies this morning.  The tester cookies we tried ended up being very dry--like cardboard dry---like chip-a-tooth dry.  

The dough did not come together like it should have, it looked like little crumbles, and I needed to add water.  It rolled out like normal, and it baked nicely.  I probably should have made a gingerbread house out of the dough, based on how structurally sound the finished products came out.  

I wanted the type of icing I had on a cookie at a wedding of two of my classmates in 2003.  Some internet research showed me that it was probably Royal Icing, and I wanted to try it out. 

I got a few icing implements, including bags and a tip, meringue powder, and white-white icing coloring.I watched videos and read recipes online.  I considered many techniques, including piping and flooding and painting.  In the end I couldn't figure out what type of paintbrush would be foodsafe (none of the websites told what type of brush they were using/recommending).

I suppose we will try again with sugar cookies this time.  I would like to paint, if I ever figure out what kind of brush to get...ideas appreciated on that front...

-吴碧芙

Curry Chocolate

I've trolled World Market for the past three years looking for this to show up again on the shelves.  It's a strange pairing that tastes surprisingly good.

Other combinations that I like:

• onion bagel with peanut butter
• tomato-basil bagel with peanut butter
• garlic and lemon
• sauerkraut on pizza
• pickles on pizza
• soy sauce and peanut butter
• pizza dipped in ranch dressing
• scrambled eggs with maple syrup

-吴碧芙

Winterberry

This weekend I finished the scarf I've been working on since March.  It's a "pass-through" scarf, which means there is a little tunnel for one end of the scarf to pass through, allowing the scarf to cross at the neck, without being bulky.  I did a lot of research on "keyhole" scarves before I saw something similar to this pass-though, and I ended up just making something up on my own.  The wrong side of the pass-through is done in a contrasting color. -吴碧芙

[Insert Owl Pun Here]

Another case of "right place, right time," as we took an impromptu trip to World Market, coupons in hand.  I thought, "There seem to be a lot of owls and owl motifs in here."  They never have owl cookie jars though.

The only specimen on the shelf was cleverly snatched by my husband.  Consider it a 1 year+1 week anniversary gift.

A little smaller than the others, he definitely looks cute alone on the counter while the others are still in boxes.
-吴碧芙