The Mushroom Kit (that my Nephews and Niece gave me for Christmas) was not growing, so I was about to remove it from the kitchen counter and put it outside in the patio. I placed it near the patio door to remind me to take it outside… then a few days later, I noticed that suddenly there was growth… Now it’s back to the kitchen counter…
Last night, I was laying in bed and an idea popped into my head. I want to take daily photos of what I eat… but I want keep the photos separate from my main Flickr or Twitter account… so I searched for an iPhone app that I can use for this purpose and I found one called Eatwit.
Eatwit is an iPhone app that allows you to record what you eat and take a photo(s) and include information like a description, rating, fullness, calories, bill and location. Then you can post that to Twitter or Facebook. I also created a new Twitter account: joeyseating that I will use specifically for this purpose. One thing I like about this app is that the images are posted to a separate server so I don’t have to store it on my Instagram or Flickr account… I can just look it up on Twitter.
I’ll see how I like this… I may change my mind later and use another photo app that is more Instagram-like… be we’ll see…
Update: I changed my strategy… Instead of using Eatwit, I will now using Instaplus which has photo effects like Instragram. I can either snap a photo directly with Instaplus or load it from my camera library. After making adjustments, I can send it back to the camera library then use the iPhone’s built-in Twitter integration to send the photo to Twitter.
I like this approach better because the photos are higher resolution (compared to Eatwit, which downsizes the photos) and the photos are also better intergrated with Twitter. You can easily view the photo without going to a separate site and you can see a thumbnail of it under “recent images” on the sidebar. The process handles the image storage and stores the images to Photobucket.
What can I say… I’m a geek!
After finally using my Habitat Arrows quilt for a couple weeks (it was in a quilt show in February), I got to know it more and found that I want to adjust the size of my next quilt.
Habitat Arrows is 68″ x 86″ (washed) and I noticed that when I’m using it, the right side gets lifted above the side of the bed, so I want it about 10″ wider… I think I’m happy with the length on 86″. I’ll see if I want to adjust that later…
This makes the target dimensions for my next quilt: 78″ x 86″… I have the Coded Paragraph quilt designed at 70″ x 88″, so I have a little adjusting to do. Luckily it’s not too much.
I’m starting on a new quilt called “Coded Paragraph” that I have been designing on the computer for a few months now. It is inspired by SisTeMu poster designs by Laia Clos of Barcelona’s Mot Studio.
Designer Laia Clos, of Barcelona’s Mot Studio, created a visual language called “SisTeMu” that turns every note of music into a system of geometric shapes and bright colours.*
I really liked the design and thought it would be an interesting start off point for a quilt design. I drew an initial plan in November 2011, then it evolved and evolved into something that I am finally happy with.
I gathered various fabrics from my stash, but had to buy some. I wanted bright colors that looked solid for the squares… but I didn’t want to strictly use solid fabrics, so I looked for bright colored fabrics with two to three tones for some variety.
I had a hard time searching for light grey fabrics which will be the background. I wanted a 10% grey with very little contrast, since I don’t want it to compete with the colored squares. I looked around for one particular light grey fabric called “Dapple Dot” from Daisy Janie’s Shades of Grey collection, which I had a fat quarter of… but couldn’t find locally… so I ordered some online. I’m just waiting for that fabric in the mail.
For the quilting, I will do concentric circles, similar to Dan Rouse‘s Ripple Quilt. Most of it will be machine sewn, but I want to try to do a few hand quilted ones with thick thread.
The back will almost be light gray fabric (similar to the front), but I’m thinking of making thin colored triangles that point to the center of the various quilted circles.
I never posted photos of the Apple & Pear Sauce which I made back in September 2011… So here they are.
I harvested a bunch of Apples and Pears from our garden. We have a bunch of trees, so I just take a couple here and a couple there for a mixture of different Apples, Pears and Asian Pears.
Just dump them into the sink and wash them in a pool of water.
Skin them… You can leave the skins on, but I like the Apple and Pear sauce without the skins. Chop them up into pieces.
Place the sliced Apples and Pears into a big pot with about a teaspoon of cinnamon and some sugar. I usually put about a quarter to a third of the amount that the recipe calls for because my Mom doesn’t like it too sweet. You can also add a little bit of lemon or use honey instead of sugar… You can find various recipes online.
Set the stove between medium and high until the Apples and Pears soften and releases its liquid (I don’t even add water). Once it starts to bubble, reduce the heat to low… then just continue to mix, mash and cook it down until it’s a consistency that you like. I like a little bit of fruit chunks, so I don’t cook it too long. It will get darker as you cook it more.
Once done, I place them in prepared canning bottles and boil the bottles according to the canning instructions. Once cooled, these should last for a while.
We have ours stored in the pantry and sometimes when I feel like making a simple and quick pastry, I’ll open a bottle and fill biscuit dough (from those refrigerated tubes) with about a teaspoon of sauce. Fold the edge together to enclose the filling and crimp the edges.
Then roll the dough in cinnamon sugar and bake. Eat while warm because once they cool down, the pastry may get soggy.
At one side on our house, we have a bunch of succulents that are under corrugated plastic panels to protect them from rain.
The only problem is that the plastic panels is opaque green and creates a shade over the succulents. My Mom suggested we get clear corrugated plastic panels to allow more light to come in… We didn’t have a vehicle to carry the panels from the store to our house, so we haven’t been able to replace the panels… until this morning when I asked my niece if she could drive us to the local home improvement store. They fit perfectly inside the van and I finally was able to replace the green ones.
Now the succulents will have more light and hopefully will grow better.
I saw this tree with reddish leaves on a tree at our church’s parking lot (Northern San Francisco Bay Area/zone 9b).
Anyone know what this tree is?
I also have another photo here.
I saw some seeds and collected some.
[Update] It’s Purple-leafed Hop-bush – Dodonaea viscosa ‘Purpurea’ (Family: Sapindaceae)
I just updated the What’s Growing? page and didn’t realize how many fruit trees we have until I listed them all down. Below is the list so far, not even including all the grafts that I have made.