Read from the Beginning

Close up embroidery needle and fabric

Why Are My Mediocre Crafts Worthy of Your Attention?

Erica, Free

I love crafting. I’ve been embroidering for years, sometimes I knit and crochet, and I do some light DIY projects. It gives me a sense of control when everything else feels so out of hand. I will admit, I’m not great at most of the things I try, though. I tend to over-estimate my abilities and under-estimate the amount of time a project will take. I’m often hesitant to invest in specialized tools, either because I can’t afford them or I don’t have the space. I also don’t have a ton of spare time, and sometimes I just want to watch TV. Still, I like having things exactly the way I want them, even if it means I have to create them from scratch. The end result might not be perfect, but it’s all mine.

I’m learning how to be easier on myself, too. The creators I follow on Instagram and Youtube have years of practice under their belts. Not to mention, I don’t usually start following them until far enough into their careers that they have accumulated a garage full of tools. Some of them were smart enough to learn sewing from their grandmothers, or pursue a formal education in their chosen field. And that’s great! But it’s not me. I’ve been too afraid to ask for help my whole life. I just bought a drill last year. If I want to DIY something, I have to drag it down three flights of stairs to my parking garage.

Things take time and frustration, even if they’re eventually compressed into a neat time-lapse video. And I have no intention of sugarcoating that. I want to be honest about the time a project takes me and the cost. I can’t be the only one who wishes just once that they scrolled past a mediocre project displayed proudly because it took a lot of time, and this attempt was better than the last one. Or maybe you just want to feel better about your own abilities. Either way, I hope you get something out of it.

-Erica

You’re Never Really Alone, Especially if Your Apartment is Haunted

Carolyn, Free

I know it often feels that way, especially when social options are limited and you live by yourself. But I want to assure you that, even in those deepest darkest moments, you are not alone. I am here. I am always here.

I’m not surprised you haven’t noticed me yet. My ability to communicate is severely limited right now. But I’ve noticed you. How could I not? I know nearly everything about you. The days are just so long. When you’re not home I read your books, some papers, anything I can find. That doesn’t take very long and is not always very interesting. At night I play with your cats, sorry if that wakes you up. When you’re home, I’ve already exhausted my other options, so I just watch you.

You can always talk to me. Even if you feel like you’re just talking to yourself, I can pretend that someone is reaching out and acknowledging me in the present and not just as a memory, and I will grow stronger. Obviously my motives are not completely selfless, but still. If I grow strong enough I could reach out and let you know you are not alone.

I promise not to haunt you. I save that for tenants I don’t like and I do genuinely like you. I cannot promise that my first demonstrations of newfound strength will not be interpreted as haunting. But even if they are, you will notice me and I will grow stronger and I will be able to assure you that I am here to help.

And I don’t want that to be misinterpreted as me feeling like I have the power or the duty or that I want you to feel better to satisfy some selfish savior complex. I know that’s not how these things work. I know it’s not something you can control, but if I can do one thing, it would be to reach out and help alleviate this deep and crushing loneliness that I see you suffering from. It hurts to see people so lonely when they are alive because the loneliness that comes after is so much deeper and so much worse.

-Carolyn

*This post is free for introduction purposes. Starting April 1, all Wednesday and Friday posts will be for Patreon subscribers.

What Are We, Chopped Liver? (Although that does sound pretty good right now)

Free, Harry and Dash

Dear Erica, please consider this an open declaration of our undying love and affection for you no matter how we may express it. We the undersigned Harry and Dash, your cats, have taken the most serious oath as your fierce and loyal companions until such a time as the Universe sees fit to separate us. We know you may be feeling listless and alone right now, but please let us assure you that we care about you deeply. In case you have misunderstood our intentions over the past few years, please let us clarify.

We zoom through the apartment in the middle of the night, often trampling your sleeping body because we trust you and feel comfortable around you. You are not some terrifying predator, lying in wait for us to make one wrong step. You’ll just grumble and roll over.

We snuggle with you at inconvenient times because we are telling you to slow down, enjoy life. Also you are warm and your apartment is cold.

We meow at the door or every time you cough because we want you to know we care and we want to talk to you.

We race out the door when you get home because sometimes you need a little kick to get you moving, even just a little bit. We could use some exercise too.

We’re always sniffing your eyeballs because that’s the only part of you that always always smells the same. You’re our whole world. We’re always just a tiny bit afraid we’ll lose you, so every chance we get, we have to be sure.

We try our best to keep you from getting into the shower because why would someone put such an infernal torture device as a showerhead in a perfectly good dry bathtub?

And when you get in the shower anyway, we stand guard to make sure you safely emerge.

Harry bunny kicks your legs when you’re washing dishes because he wants to protect you from the sound of silverware, but doesn’t know how. So he attacks you instead. It’s well-intentioned.

Dash throws up when he eats too fast because he’s able to be vulnerable around you. Harry eats it because he knows you like your apartment clean.

We scratch the arms of your couch to remind you that material possessions are not all there is in the world.

We stalk you like prey because at that moment, the thing we care most about in the world is hunting. And we’re choosing to hunt you. That’s a complement. And there’s no way we can take you down.

It may be unconventional, but we’re here for you, and we love you.

SIncerely,

Harry and Dash

*This post is free for introduction purposes. Starting April 1, Wednesday and Friday posts will be for Patreon subscribers

Why Emerge from Comfortable Obscurity to Help with this Blog?

Ella, Free

I think this will be good for Erica. She needs something to anchor her right now. This past year has her more listless than usual, which I did not think possible. She doesn’t feel like she’s good enough at anything. Right now it’s her job. She doesn’t even like it, so I don’t know why she cares. And sometimes it’s her hobbies, which is hard when she depends on them to distract her from her job.

The root of her listlessness is much deeper than her job or her addiction to crafting videos, though. I’ve been watching over Erica since birth. I watched over her mother before that and her grandfather before that. I watch over all members of my family who are born with the gift. It happens once a generation. If all goes well, I do not appear.

Erica is not the first to be born with the gift and unable to channel it. She is the first whose parent has the gift and has been unable to teach her. By some stroke of luck, the gift was passed down for hundreds of years through a line of natural cooks who channeled it through food. Erica does not have a natural talent for the culinary arts. Because she did not excel naturally, as her mother expected, she was not taught and refused to learn. I know what she’s going through. I struggled too, as neither of my parents were afflicted.

She needs to find some channel for her power, but she needs to be on solid footing first. Whatever the gift is, however it ended up in my family, it is strongly linked to emotions. For years, I have watched her suppress her emotions for fear of letting out her power in a way she cannot control. She should not have to live like that. I think this will help her. She enjoys her crafting and she enjoys helping people. She needs more enjoyment in her life.

She also needs to learn how to cook. Even if she does not use cooking to channel her gift, she needs to take care of herself. I’m sure there are others out there who believe they possess no natural talent for cooking because it just seems so daunting. I don’t think feeding yourself should feel that way. If someone had come to me deep in the woods of medieval Scandinavia and told me I would one day have a cooking blog to help my however-many-times great granddaughter, I’d have said they were the witch. But no one can predict where life will take them.

-Ella

Disclaimer: This is Frustrating, But Still Worth It

Erica, Free

To say this blog is not exactly how I imagined it is an understatement. I have been sitting on the idea starting this blog for over a year. As an avid reader of other craft and DIY blogs, I had a grand vision for my own. This grand vision involved many skills and habits I do not have. I could have waited, put my crafting projects on pause to learn these skills, but then I may have lost my momentum.

Progress photos, an essential part of any DIY blog, are the best example. I often work on my projects at night when the lighting is bad for photographs, and I have neither the budget nor space for supplemental lighting. I also sometimes just get so into whatever I’m working on at the idea of taking pictures does not even occur to me. I also don’t necessarily always have a clean and elegant setting for my photos since my coffee table is often covered with books, papers, and unfinished projects. And I’m not about to clean again just to get a quick picture.

I did think about supplementing one or two photos per post with a neat line drawing for each step. Since the lighting would again be an issue taking photos of actual drawings, I decided to purchase a drawing tablet for my computer. Well, that’s a lot harder than it seems. I haven’t given up on it yet. I’m still learning, but my skill level certainly is not in a place where I am willing to publish those drawings on the Internet.

I won’t even get into my shortcomings with WordPress and the internet in general, or crafts that I want to try, but have little experience with. If I tried to learn that before I published my first blog post, you’d never see any of this. Like all my other projects, I’ll be learning as I go, and I think that’s the most honest representation of my creative process.

I say all this not to inspire any sort of sympathy, but to say that I know it is not perfect and if I had waited until it was I would never have started. I like to create mostly because I like to control. Creating something from scratch means that I get exactly what I want, at least within my abilities. When something is beyond my abilities, I often abandon the idea without learning or asking for help.

I place an unhealthy amount of value on being naturally good at things, or at least appearing so. These warped ideals happen when you have no natural talent in areas that seem to come easily to everyone else. I’ve always been very easily overwhelmed and had trouble controlling my emotions. When I was a child, that often led to magical outbursts. They could get so bad that those around me were in danger. I was told I needed to control myself as if the outbursts were my choice, but was never taught how. My parents were ill-equipped to deal with me and professional help was out of the question. They could not trust a four-year-old to keep her mouth shut. My mother tried to teach me to cook, hoping that would help me the way it helped her, but I was so useless at it, the results were almost as dangerous as my outbursts.

Eventually, I accomplished a veneer of control. I never had an outburst when I felt good, and I felt good when I excelled and was praised. I stayed away from any activity at which I did not naturally excel. I only let myself be frustrated in private. If I had to fail at something publicly, I made a show of not putting in any effort at all. By the time I was in college, I was exhausted. I realized what I was doing was not healthy and began undoing all the harm done by the idea that I must succeed at everything.

And part of that part of undoing the damage done by those thoughts is admitting this is not perfect. It’s not how I imagined it would be. And I’m still trying really hard. But it’s still worth it, because I just need it to start.

-Erica

*This post is free for introduction purposes. Starting April 1, all Wednesday and Friday posts will be for Patreon subscribers.

Get Great Plants Without Buying Them (or stealing them)

Erica, Free

I don’t need to extol the virtues of houseplants. Assuming those are a given, I want to start by saying there’s nothing wrong with purchasing a fully grown Ficus or parlor palm or an already lush and abundant pothos (or fake plants if you don’t have adequate lighting). And, if you are in a place where you can afford to support a local greenhouse or nursery by purchasing from them, by all means do.

 If the price tag on fully-grown plants is too hefty, there is no reason you cannot grow your own beautiful, healthy houseplants. It just takes more time. Many houseplants propagate and divide easily and there’s a good chance someone you know already has one. You won’t immediately have the giant and bushy fern you want, but you will get the chance to nurture it as it grows into its fullest self.

The most obvious benefit of collecting plant cuttings from friends and acquaintances is that it immediately connects you to another person in a way that purchasing your plant from a home-improvement store might not. Purchasing it from a local nursery might give you a similar connection.

Starting small with your plant also gives you more time to become connected to and acquainted with the plant and its needs. You are the one caring for it and coaxing each new leaf into the world. And you can take pride in it as it grows from a scraggly little thing into a waterfall of vines. If you purchase a fully grown plant you are simply putting it on the shelf and hoping it continues to grow.

Finally, when your plants are large and healthy, you can begin snipping and dividing and passing the cuttings on to someone else. When you do, the that gets passed on with the plant will be even longer and connect even more people.

Some easy plants to propagate:

(It’s cropped funny so you can’t see the parts the cats have eaten)

Pothos: These vines are the quintessential low maintenance houseplant. They do not need much water or light and they will grow into a fantastic mess of vines. To propagate cut a piece of the vine, make sure it is the actual vine, not just the leaf stem, and place it in water. Once the vine has begun to put out roots, usually in a few weeks, it is ready to be planted.

I’m not even sure if this is a spider plant. It looks like a spider plant, but I got it from the garbage so I can’t be sure

Spider plants: Spider plants propagate themselves, sending out tendrils with baby plants, or pups. These plants will begin to grow their own roots, but must be placed in water to foster root development or planted in a pot of their own. Spider plant pups are easy to come by since anyone with a healthy spider plant will have more pups than they know what to do with

Succulents: Succulents require a bit more work to propagate, but are worth it. Like spider plants, other succulent owners will eventually have more growing succulent leaves than they can reasonably plant themselves. The best succulent leaves to propagate are the ones that come away easily from the main plant, but are still firm and healthy. Leave them in dry dirt or on gravel for a few days until you begin to see roots or leaves growing. You can begin to slowly water the props, but be careful not to let the main leaf get too wet. If it begins to rot before the prop is self-sufficient, it will die. When the leaf begins to shrivel and die, but the roots and new succulent are healthy, transfer it to its own container.

-Erica

Spices

Start Small with Spices: Separate the Art of Seasoning from Cooking

Ella, Free

For those who are entirely new to the art of cooking, or those whose creations always turn out all right rather than just right, the practice of seasoning food can seem quite daunting. Often times those friends or acquaintances you consider the best cooks excel at seasoning. Their skill with flavoring often makes replicating their recipes impossible.

Rather than attempt to re-create someone else’s dish or spend hours trying to study flavor profiles in search of perfection, I suggest starting small. Learning to season and cook at the same time is a recipe for disappointment. Executing two new concepts at the same time creates two windows for error and therefore twice the possibility of discouragement. The last thing I want to do is discourage you.

Instead, I would suggest experimenting with seasonings on those nights when you are simply too tired or too busy to cook and must turn to prepared foods. It happens to all of us. There’s no need to be ashamed. And it goes without saying that no mass-produced meal is going to match your tastes exactly. There is always room for improvement. You may think this sounds silly but realize that whenever you add Parmesan cheese or red pepper flakes to a frozen pizza or salt and pepper a TV dinner this is exactly what you are doing. Why not take it a step further?

The possibilities for this exercise are endless. You can start with a jar of plain tomato sauce and figure out what it might be lacking to suit your taste. And if that doesn’t work, at least you haven’t botched someone’s Nona’s recipe and you really only waste the price of a two-dollar jar of pasta sauce. You can spice up a store-bought rotisserie chicken and pop it in the oven for a few more minutes to let the flavor really sink in. And of course, you can add a little spice to your microwave meals that never really packs the same punch as takeout from your favorite restaurant. But for today, I will focus on what you can do to personalize a can of soup.

The amount of canned chicken and rice soup Erica eats is staggering. To an extent, I can understand why. She does not have a microwave and soup can be easily heated up on a stovetop. It supplies protein, starch, and vegetables, although I’d say not enough to be considered a complete meal. And I know for a fact that chicken soup with rice is one of her mother’s specialties.

So, where can Erica begin to make her canned soup more like what she is used to at home? First, she can start by adding ingredients she knows her mother uses. Frozen spinach is a great way to add more vegetables to any soup, and a nice flavor if spinach is your thing.  You can also add frozen peas or carrots or any sort of vegetable that strikes your fancy. I say frozen because that would require much less washing and chopping that fresh vegetables. This is not a prohibition against fresh vegetables, but I assume chopping is something you’ve elected to avoid if you are eating canned soup.

Now that the base of your soup is somewhat more reflective of hearty soups from home, we can begin with the herbs and spices. Here is where Erica should personalize it to her own taste rather than try to replicate her mother’s soup. If she does not know what she wants yet, salt and pepper are always a good place to start. Frozen vegetables will dilute your soup a bit, so salt is highly recommended. A dash of cayenne will give it a little kick. Rosemary and thyme are always welcome, especially in chicken soup. I sometimes add some basil and oregano as well.

At this point, none of your spices are anything that I would consider terribly adventurous. They are probably already in your spice cabinet from previous cooking adventures or misadventures. If you have any spices you bought for a single recipe, but are reluctant to add to your repertoire, now is a great time to try them out. You may also add some garlic or onion powder if you like the flavor but don’t want to chop any garlic or onions. I also highly recommend a dash of caraway seeds, especially if you are used to having your chicken soup with a giant, well-buttered slab of rye bread.

Of course, these are all just suggestions and I encourage you, and Erica, to experiment. Take note when you do so of approximate amounts and proportions. That way you will know what to replicate or not. If you run into a bad combination and don’t feel like finishing it, all that’s gone is one can of soup and you only need to grab another one and start again. Or you can eat what has already been prepared for you. That is much more appealing than wasting an entire stock pot full of soup or eating something that you don’t like all week just because you don’t want to go back to the store.

Good luck and happy seasoning!

-Ella