How weird are we?

Since March is apparently "National Crafts Month" I thought I should attempt to chronicle the weirdness that is our crafty household. Also at some point I read an article in Sunset about "the next hip food-crafty trends" or something similar. It listed about 6 "new" things all the cool foodies should try. I realized we'd already done 5 of the 6 things.
Also the big interest in Pinterest cracks me up, because it really seems like a site for people that wish they were craftier than they actually are (but instead they spend hours online trolling for pretty pictures of food and crafts). I actually do make those weird, complicated recipes, and craft those cute things.

So here is a list of our homestead-craftiness:

Gardening:
* 124 square feet of raised bed garden space.
* Additional beds of strawberries & garlic, plus blueberry plants, rhubarb, 4 fruit trees, and hops on the garage.
*Herbs and flowers in the front, as well as a hedge of raspberries edged with artichokes.

Food:
* Homebrewed beer, all from the grain (as opposed to extract- it's like making a cake from scratch vs boxed mix), often using home-grown hops.
+ Home-fermented cider (from apples we press ourselves, grown by us & Matt)
* Homemade rootbeer (from extract, but still)
* Homemade cheese: mozzarella, ricotta (both milk and whey-style, queso blanco
* Homemade sausage. R loves doing this, I just help turn the handle because I hate raw ground meat.
* homemade sauerkraut and pickles, the lacto-fermented REAL version, not the add-vinegar quick way.
* home canned peaches, jams, tomatoes, chutney, and all sorts of other preserves.
* I often bake complicated cookie/ dessert recipes, usually involving some kind of caramel. The last ones I made were copycats of GSA Samoas. All treats in our house come from scratch, not a box or a mix. They taste 500 times better that way.
* Homemade candies: caramel, fudge, divinity, lollipops, fondant eggs, praline, chocolate frogs, marshmallows, beer brittle, toffee.
* We bake bread, sometimes by hand, sometimes in the machine, often using the 3-min-a-day recipes. Also pizza crust.
* Homemade pasta. We haven't done it in a while, but making squash raviolis are on the list for next week's dinner.
* Sssmokin! R got a smoker for Christmas a couple years ago and has smoked: tofu, salmon, many kinds of cheese, almonds, scallops.
* And let's not forget the contribution of eggs by our 3 chickens. :)
* We often try new recipes from all over the world. We've made etouffe, gnocchi, Mongolian hotpots, lemongrass beef noodle bowls, caponata, spanikopita, borscht, schnitzel, tikki masala, chili relleno, Ethiopian lentil stew, tagine, potstickers, ceviche, sushi, wood-fired pizza, kalua pork, etc. Tonight's dinner is pad see ew.
* Also this is not crafty, but trendy- we source all our meats locally from small, sustainable farms (4-H kids, if you want to know) and catch our own clams and crabs.

Crafty:
* I've knit over 200 things, including probably 30+ sweaters.
* I dye yarn about 3 times a month, and am learning more about using natural dyes (as opposed to food coloring, which I use now).
* I now create yarn on my spinning wheel! The other day I spun 5 oz of fluff that I dyed myself and got 315 yards of lightweight wool!
* We make our own soap from the melt & pour glycerine. I currently have 25 lbs of goat-milk base R gave me for Christmas. ;)
* I'm in the midst of sewing a green pleated skirt for St. Patrick's Day. I've made a couple other skirts, pillows for our couch, tote bags, the dog bed, etc.
* Woodworking- R has made shelves, spice racks, tables, display racks, a sweater cabinet, a nice box for my knitting, a cribbage board, etc.

Construction:
R built our garage himself, aside from the concrete and framing, which had to be done by professionals. He's also built several retaining walls, our garden shed, a stone patio, a pergola for the grapes over the patio, a trellis for wisteria, and the chicken chalet.

I'm sure there are a million things I'm forgetting, and things that don't really have a good space like "we make our own granola." But yeah, we're foodies, and we're weird. Apparently that currently makes us hip. Crazy.

The holidays are upon us.

Well, we have a nice, quiet Thanksgiving at my Aunt's house in Medford with my Mom and the Dogs (my Aunt's poor cat was under house-arrest in her room all weekend). We successfully avoided the mall on the worst shopping day of the year, though we did buy two things, of which i am not proud. But I got the yarn I wanted to make myself a cardigan (whenever I finally finish my endless gift knitting) and we finally got a frame for our print of a watercolor of the Ponte Vecchio R got in Florence while he was in College. It went up in the bathroom, and looks nearly perfect! Sorry to anyone who had hoped we might be in Portland for the weekend. We are still arguing over whether or not we will be up for the weekend before Christmas for an early family celebration before my Mom and Aunt leave for Cabo (flights didn't go down enough for us to go, regardless of swiftly dropping fuel prices).

I worked every day last week (though 2 were training for Head start substitutes, which pays half my regular rate), and am working the first 2 days of this week (science, yay! lots of time to knit during videos). So I've been pretty busy, and on top of that, I've now got a nasty cold, of the yucky nasal & chest variety. It's made me feel weak at gymnastics, which is sad, because this is the last week. I've got the round-off, back-handpring combination on the floor fairly well, along with front handsprings. Now I'm learning "fly handsprings" where you jump into it, not step into it. I still can't properly land front tuck flips, but that might be due to the 6 inches of mat, which would be 6 extra inches to stand up if I could brave doing them on the floor itself.

Dispite my being sick, this weekend was a whirlwind of productive home-improvements for R. He finished sealing the concrete at the base of the outer garage walls, put up a frame to hold the laundry sink in place, and got the garage organized. I hope this truly is the last time we have to move that giant shelf. Then he put a small light over the shower, which made a world of difference, wired our potrack light, and put up the track lights in the kitchen we have been wanting for 3 years now. Now we'll never need to turn on the hideous humming flourescent tube lights again, hooray! I made double-ginger cookies and lasagna, and started my Mom's Christmas present blanket, which is going to take forever. It will be a really cool pattern, but not one I can memorize and do quickly.

I don't know why, but apparently even though I have blogger set so that anyone should be able to comment, no one can. But I hope you all had a great Thanksgiving, and that you have a peaceful, reflective early holiday season. I miss you all!