Stewart Creations

Yeah, a couple of my classes have already slammed me.  The Humanities in particular.  We have teamed up the class into five teams for our term project.  My team chose healthcare, and I think what we will do is get donated medical supplies to somewhere needed.

I have a great friend, Gwen, who knows a ‘NURSE WITHOUT BORDERS’ who has done a donation management before and has agreed to help me with contacts and advice.  I can’t tell you how important this is…… The other night, when I realized how much there is to do in this class, I was just in tears.  I was so afraid I wouldn’t be able to do well in  this class and it would drag my GPA down.  It’s stupid, because the reason I have to take this class anyway is for the Honors Student achievement.  So losing GPA would knock me out of honors,….. well, I went uselessly around that for awhile.

Yesterday I talked to my honors advisor and also one of the professors and I feel much better.  I’d better feel better, today is the last day I can change, and I haven’t gotten a response from any of the other teachers that might take an honors studet transfer (or not).  I sent everyone emails, there’s an ART and a CIS, either of which I am more suited for than this doo-gooder stuff.  I’m not much of a joiner, you know, and this is all group volunteerism.  One of the examples was a few years ago a class fixed up a home of poor illegal immigrants and did a film about it.  great project, only I have a lot of problems with the subject of it.

The ‘before’ picture showed a filthy house in total disarray.  (there is no excuse for that kind of behavior, poverty does not cause dirt.  The second issue is the illegal alien part when there are a lot of American families in need.

My third point of displeasure comes from personnal experience:

My son and I have been so close to homelessness ourselves in the past and could not get help because we are WHITE, EMPLOYED and SOBER.  You really have to be pretty far down and somewhat brown to get people to help you.  Then later, I felt I could give back and volunteered to Habitat to Humanity and discovered that the (brown) people who were getting these homes were better off than I.  I also joined a church group to fix up a house that was falling apart and met the people we were helping…. they were ungrateful drunks living off their old granny (who was the real homeowner)  They hadn’t even done the yard work,  There was so much trash and squalor I couldn’t believe it!!!  So this is the thing, I believe you need to be responsible for your own cleanliness and have to bootstrap up sometimes.

The humanities class is going to be a challenge, with all those young, idealistic  do-gooders in there.  At least I found a group doing something I can believe in.  Maybe I can put a breath of sanity in there

.

Wow, I’m a curmudgeon, huh?

drying on an old sheet

Picture of my latest paper, I have a batch drying now, too.

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It’s really great to be back in school.  The summer was beginning to feel pointless.

My e-commerce class cancelled (not enough enrollment) and my spanish class might, I’ll find out tomorrow.  I think it’s too much of a beginner class for me anyway. but it might pick up.  All the while I was sitting there in class thinking ‘I already know this stuff” I was telling myself that it always starts off slow, and don’t knock it.  So I really put my espanol out there on this first assignment, used all that I’ve got.  I’ll let the teacher be the judge.

I applied and interviewed for a work-study job at the student life center, I think it went pretty well.  We’ll see in two days.

Tonite is my photoshopCS3 class, the one I came over to this campus for.  Plus the campus is right across the street, which is sweet.  I’m pretty excited about this class, it’s taught by this incredible teacher that I had last term for web design.

Humanities is going to be interesting, we get three social issue type books to read and do speaking presentations on.  I hate speaking and it makes me puke from nerves, so this will be good for me.  Maybe I can get past this.  It’s stupid to not be able to make presentations just from cowardice.  What’s there to be afraid of?  I might bore people?  They’ve been bored before.  They might judge me unfavorably?  It’s happened before and I survived.

I just keep pep-talking myself.  Get myself pumped up.  Wednesday is my first stand-up presentation.

The quilt……. I am plugging away on the back of it, it’s looking pretty cute.

Sammy brought her old quilt (that I made a couple of years ago) to get it repaired this weekend, I had forgotten how nice it turned out.  She has Chinese decor in her room so I made her a simple bamboo

design.  It feels just right, she says she loves it and she drags it around to watch TV with.  The top black material is a cotton gabardine and the back is wheat-colored crinkle-cloth, a little heavier than the gauzy stuff you usually see with crinkle-cloth, with a linen-like texture.  Single ply low-loft batting and it’s a small queen or large double size.

I replaced the top-stitched leaves which had been thin silk, but they wore off.  so I put the same material as the backing on for the leaves.  I did some straight lines to hold a place where I know the batting is seperated.  Some top-stitching had come out.  i used light thread.  I’m not sure I like it, but

after I thought about it, I think I could make it better by curving the lines at the top and making them look like wheat.  I told Sammy about that and if it bothers her, she can bring it back and I can easily update it.

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A friend of mine sent me this link

http://digital-photography-school.com/blog/how-to-make-a-inexpensive-light-tent

She made one basically like this one and one out of PVC pipe.  Said the cardboard box is better.  I guess both could be folded flat for storing.

Before I forget, the author of Breadwinners is Mel London.  A very good read, as mentioned in the last entry.

Today I finally stirred and churned the papier mache mix.  I added some color and set on a design for a first project with this batch.  I think I will try some picture frames, or framed picture boxes.

egg cartons

Comments Off | In: sourdough bread | tags: Add new tag, art, breadmaking, photography. | #

double batch of bread, rising

Craving homemade bread.

I was having complete cravings for it, so I took my sourdough starter out of the fridge for a couple of days, (fed it) and made a double batch of rye/wholewheat.  I had been babysitting a friend’s cat for a week and she has a really great bookshelf, so I always read to her cat, Gabby, so she doesn’t get lonely.

We found a breadmakers book,  Breadwinners, published in the mid-seventies by a guy living on an island somewhere up in the NorthEast corner of New York, or close to.  Everybody in the book, dancers, publishers, writers, CEO’s, seemed to commute.  The author introduced the reader to all these interesting people and their recipes.  The author was a documentary film director and travelled the country, picking up recipes and bread buddies along the way.  It was a very good read.  You can’t really read something like that, though without wanting some homemade bread of your own.

When I get the author’s name I will post it, maybe tomorrow.

Mine turned out even tougher and heavier than usual, I think because it was hot and rainy, the dough rose really fast and tall, I punched it down an extra time because I carried it over to Gabby’s house to bake it and it fell a little.  It was too hot to bake in an oven if anyone was going to try to be home, so I used my friend’s empty house.  Also, I used mostly whole grain flours.  Next time I want to try sprouted grains, I have some grains that might sprout pretty well.

I have to say, though, that the taste is perfect.  I just toast it a lot, and it’s fine.  Crunchy.

high humidity, high heat

I can’t seem to get off my butt and finish the solar oven.  maybe today, hope springs eternal.

Rye bread, baked on a stone

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Dave’s hobby is rebuilding/restoring ‘rice burner’ motorcycles. He rides them around a track for fun, and finds all sorts of bikes in various stages of disrepair in the process.
The painting is an interesting (and stinky) process, here I have the last end of the painting. He’s putting on the clear coat.
He puts it on over the decorative stickers. First he takes out the dents (it’s mostly fiberglass), fills the cracks and sands. It takes him a long time, sometimes weeks of his spare time, to get the body ready for primer. Then the primer has to be sanded.
He had some frustration with the primer this time because the weather was so hot (it’s been getting to over 110 F for months now – we’re sick of it) that it dried in the paint gun before he got it all on the bike parts. I guess he found an additive to slow down the drying process, and now he’s much happier.
Enjoy the pics.

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Lazy weekend,  Sammie and Dave and I went to see that Jules Verne thing with Brendan Fraser in it.  it was entertaining, not too hokey and not violent at all.  We really enjoyed it.  It would have been great in 3D like when it first came out, lots of things flinging themselves at the screen, and that wild roller-coaster ride.

I did have time to do the ruffle on Joleen’s Quilt.  It really makes a happy feeling when you look at it now.  That happy feeling is kind of a goal of mine when I make a quilt,  and this one has it.

I’m glad you like it, J.  It’s about a double bed size.  I was surprised it was so small, but the design doesn’t need anything else, I am working on a wide border now to finish, and form the wrap edge so the back pattern will tie in to the front design.  

I figure it’s the right size for Joleen’s family since they’ve downsized recently, this blankie will fit into a washer easily, and cover a couch or a kid’s bed just fine.  When you settle again, Joleen, I will make you a big one.  You have a big family and can use more blankies.

Looks like I will be done with it before school starts.  At least mostly done.

I hung it on the clothsline next to the citrus trees, the greens shadows are just right and it makes a good picture.

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