Gothy Christmas Stocking – How To

Neil’s Blog Entry

Okay, so I don’t normally do crafty-type blog posts here, but there’s a first time for everything… and I really wanted to show you all the Christmas stocking I made – okay, decorated – for the holidays.

It all started with a standard red and white felt Christmas stocking and a stocking-decorating contest held at work. I made a quick trip to the craft store and then headed home to plunder Laura’s fabric remnants. Victory! Black leather.

The leather was a natural hide so there were many irregular shapes I could play around with. I cut the leather into strips of various sizes and began wrapping the stocking. I ended up using two large irregular shapes at the top, and several strips that got smaller and smaller as they went down to the bottom, stopping just before the end of the toe. The end result looked like a stocking that had been wrapped in one large piece leather, even though it was made up of many different pieces.

Oh, and I used a hot glue gun for everything.

I began by attaching a strip of old black jeans with ripped and unraveled edges to the bottom, just above the toe. Then I glued the leather strips, slightly overlapping each one, stopping just below the white trim at the top. Once the leather was finished, I cut up a spiked wristband and set it at an angle near the bottom. Another studded wristband was wrapped around the front edge, just underneath the second larger piece of leather.

I had one of those fabric tattoo sleeves from a Halloween costume from a few years back. I cut it longways and wrapped it around the white trim of the stocking. I then covered the bottom edge of the tattoo fabric with a spiked dog collar, which was glued into place. An additional piece of leather was cut and glued to form the trim at the top of the tattoo fabric.

A twisted strip of the tattoo fabric was then draped along the side of the stocking as a bit of gothy garland. It was tucked up underneath the dog collar and glued into place.

Next I glued some craft store rivets to the leather in selected places to further define the form to my liking.

I then attached some metal snowflakes, also purchased at the craft store, to the large pieces of leather.

Right above the spiked wristband, I glued on my Santa Claus. My Santa was made from two sets of those dimensional stickers used in scrapbooking. The first set was a Santa suit and bag of presents. The second set was a skeleton and coffin. A few simple cuts and a bit more hot glue later, and the skeleton was emerging from the coffin all decked out in the Santa suit.

Finally, I cut a thin strip of leather to make a band that I ran around the stocking a few inches below the dog collar. I added a few more rivets and used some vintage typewriter-ish looking stickers to spell out my name. How else will Santa know to whom it belongs?

So that’s pretty much it… All totaled, it took about six or seven glue sticks and maybe a couple of hours to put together and I’m very happy at how it turned out. Now I’m sure I probably forgot a step or something, so if you’re trying to make your own and have a question, please don’t hesitate to ask and/or make comments.

Still with no pithy catchphrase,

Neil

Festivity Abounds

Laura’s Blog Entry

I know I shouldn’t be smug about it, but we’ve got some Christmas stuff up around here already. In the past we’ve been lucky to have it up by mid-December. It probably happened because Mari’s been talking about the holiday since before Thanksgiving.

Sunday we put up the tree. I miss the lovely scent of a real one, but when Mari was a baby we found out she was allergic. The artificial one we got is pretty nice. It’s not very big around, which is good since we don’t have much space.

Mari is a lover of routine, so she has one ornament that must go on first. The topper goes on last.

I even put some garland and lights on the mantle and pulled out a Christmas cross stitch I did awhile back. The sheep on this one is done in loops of floss so it has texture. Very cute.

There is an evergreen swag on the door (thanks for putting that together, Trader Joe’s), and I will, at some point, put some evergreens in the window box.

That will be it. We don’t get too crazy around here.

Ah hem. Well. Except for this:

Let’s just say this new little addition is so bright you can see it from space. Little Mari gets what she wants.

Staycation

Laura’s Blog Entry

Today marks the first day of the rest of my life… or something like that. Mari had a dance performance on Saturday and the preparations for that were eating our life. We have two super-busy weeks each year, and this was one of them. Actually the last two weeks were mayhem if you consider Thanksgiving. So I have declared this week a staycation. Just for me. At least during school hours.

Today began, once the family was off, with a delicious, flowery white tea. (Complements of my in-laws. Thanks!) I need to do a little work on the next podcast regarding the music, but then I am going to focus on my mega-Christmas-gift-crafting-project. It is a doozie. Involving beads and sequins. Tiny little beads and sequins.

I also need to wrap up a coaster order and FINISH MY SWEATER ALREADY!

Between podcasts and old movies on Turner Classic Movies, I will be well entertained. I just saw that Executive Suite starring William Holden is on tomorrow at 9 AM. If you haven’t seen this, you should. It’s great and he’s dreamy.

Also in the plan is some extra curricular cooking, lunch and coffee with friends, and a little baking.

So off I got on my merry way. Stay tuned for holiday decorations. We got the tree up early this year – early for us anyway!

Free Music Friday

Laura’s Blog Entry

As if a free Venus Hum album weren’t enough, today I bring you Stray Theories.

Micha Wolfe is an electronic musician from Australia and we like his stuff a lot. So if you are into lovely ambient instrumentals, head over and get his album Drift for free at LastFM.

Depeche Mode Gets Two Grammy Nominations!

Laura’s Blog Entry

Yes, it’s true… and much deserved. Depeche Mode has been nominated for Best Alternative Music Album (Vocal or Instrumental) for Sounds of the Universe as well as for Best Short Form Video for “Wrong.”

They have been nominated three times before, but in more obscure categories. I am so happy they are finally being recognized in a more mainstream forum. Head on over to Depechemode.com for the skinny on who they are up against.

Looks like another Grammy party is in my future!

Switched on Christmas

Laura’s Blog Entry

It’s an early Christmas gift for you! Venus Hum is giving away holiday music. They have released a special edition of their amazing album, Switched on Christmas. It includes the original six tracks, plus two new tracks, “I’ve Got My Love To Keep Me Warm” and “What I Really Want For Christmas.”

So hop on over to Venushum.bandcamp.com and get to downloading. It’s not the moody, dark Christmas stuff that Neil does, but there’s room for everyone at Christmas, right?

SOP036 – Ho Ho Ho, Smith Britannia!

Download this episode or listen online

Show Notes
‘Tis the season and special guest Kevin Bee spreads holiday cheer all over the joint. We chat about holiday goodies, and all things Christmasy.  Neil and Mari share dueling versions of “Silent Night” and for What’s the Best Show on Television? we feature a program from across the pond, the BBC’s documentary “Synth Britannia.” Neil and Kevin do some scheming and surprise Laura with her very own birthday music mix. And to wrap it all up like a pretty package, we discuss what the heck Martin Gore’s songs have to do with World of Warcraft. All this with a lovely assortment of acoustic tunes by Far Beyond Frail, Now Is Now, Adrina Thorpe, and Leigh Nash. Don’t worry Martin, we won’t subpoena you unless it is absolutely necessary.

Music Guide
“Silent Night”
Artist: Neil Smith

“Portland”
Artist: Far Beyond Frail
Album: Butterfly Sketches
http://www.farbeyondfrail.com
http://www.myspace.com/farbeyondfrail
iTunes

“Silent Night”
Artist: Mari Smith

“Sail Away”
Artist: Now Is Now
Album: Transitions
http://www.nowisnow.com
http://www.myspace.com/mitchalden
iTunes

“Fly”
Artist: Adrina Thorpe
Album: Elusive
http://www.halflightandshadows.com
http://www.myspace.com/adrinathorpe
iTunes

“Wishing for This”
Artist: Leigh Nash
Album: Wishing for This
http://www.leighnash.com/home.html
http://www.myspace.com/leighnash
iTunes

Miscellaneous Links and Goodies

Do you Twitter? Swell! Follow us at http://twitter.com/smithsocc.

*UPDATE DECEMBER 2*
Go see Kevin in The Eight: Reindeer Monologues

Peppakakor
Swedish Spice Cookies

*Plan ahead tip – dough must be chilled for 2 hours before rolling and baking.

¾ cup shortening, at room temperature (I use all butter. Use what you like best.)
1 cup brown sugar
1 egg
4 Tablespoons molasses
2 ¼ cup all purpose flour
1/8 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons baking soda
½ teaspoon ground cloves
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1 teaspoon ground ginger

Additional flour for rolling
Red and green colored sugar for decorating

Special equipment: A pastry cloth and rolling pin cover. Without these it is pretty much impossible to roll the cookies thin enough. Williams-Sonoma often carries the set. Here’s a link to what it looks like.

Instructions:
Cream the shortening with a mixer until smooth. Add sugar gradually and cream thoroughly. Blend in egg. Mix in molasses.

Sift together the dry ingredients and spices. Add to wet ingredients and mix until combined. Don’t over mix.

Form dough into 2 disks and wrap in plastic wrap. Chill for approximately 2 hours.

Preheat oven to 325 degrees.

Put rolling pin cover on the rolling pin and place the pastry cloth flat on the counter. Sprinkle the cloth generously with flour and roll the rolling pin in it to cover with flour as well. Dough will be sticky, so add flour as needed.

Remove one disk of dough at a time from the fridge and roll it as thin as possible. You will get a feel for it after baking the first batch. They will be nearly paper-thin. Cut out in simple shapes – star, heart and rounds are traditional. The dough won’t hold up to more complex shapes. Brush off any excess flour from the top of cookies.

Transfer to a nonstick cookies sheet. Place cookies an inch or so apart. They don’t spread much. Sprinkle unbaked cookies with the colored sugars.

Bake 7-8 minutes. Watch closely. They burn easily! Don’t let the edges get brown – that is too done. The first batch is a test for the time in your oven. Cookies should be crisp after they cool.

Let cool for a minute or so on the cookie sheet to firm up. Transfer to a cooling rack. Scrape any left-over sugar from the pan before baking the next batch. Also, let the pan cool a bit before putting on the next batch or the dough will melt.

Store in an airtight container. They break easily, so ziplock bags aren’t sturdy enough.

Gallery of Guys Neil Finds Attractive

The obligatory Depeche Mode Link
http://www.depechemode.com

Waste Not, Want Not (How to Make Turkey Stock)

Laura’s Blog Entry

Hope everyone who celebrated Thanksgiving this week had a lovely time. I’m sure that my hour and 15 minute yoga class before dinner worked off any of the extra calories I ingested. Yeah. Right.

As a part of my frugal cooking plan of 2009, I made Turkey Stock today with the leftovers. Sorry vegetarians. Can you at least appreciate that I made good use of the little gobbler?

It turned out quite tasty, so I thought I would share the recipe here.

Turkey Stock

1 turkey frame (ours was heavy on the dark meat as we don’t eat that part)
¼ lb. mushrooms
2 celery stalks
2 carrots
½ of a very large onion
5 whole cloves of garlic
1 teaspoon dried rosemary
1 teaspoon dried sage
10-15 whole peppercorns
2 whole allspice berries (or are they called corns, too?)
2 teaspoons salt
Water

You can use any vegetables you have on hand. These are just the basics. I like to throw in spinach or other greens for extra nutrition. Nothing has to be cut up. It’ll all be strained out later.

Place all the ingredients in a tall stock pot. Break up the turkey frame a bit to make it fit. Add water until the pot is about 2/3 of the way full. Not sure how much I put in. Don’t fill it too full or the stock will be weak and flavorless. It’s OK if the frame isn’t covered. It will sink down a bit as it cooks.

Bring to a boil. Reduce heat to keep it just above a simmer. I put a lid on for the first hour. Stir after 30 minutes.

Leave the lid slightly ajar and simmer for an additional 30 minutes.

Leave the lid ajar and turn off the heat. Let it cool until it is safe to handle. This stuff is dangerous! I let it sit a couple of hours, but don’t leave it at room temperature for any length of time. Food safety, people!

Put a large colander or strainer in a large mixing bowl. Transfer everything in the stockpot into the strainer. See why you want it cooled down? I always spill!

Allow all the stock to drain into the bowl and discard the solids.

Divide stock into containers for freezing. I scoop it out with a glass measuring cup with a spout. Less mess. I find 2 cup containers are the most handy and is approximately equal to 1 can of broth in a recipe.

This batch ended up with 5 cups of stock when finished.

Label and freeze stock.

Fall Knitting Blitz

Laura’s Blog Entry

Don’t know what it is exactly, but cool weather hits and the knitting mojo kicks into high gear. Most times of the year, sitting down here and there during the day to knit, knitting at Mari’s dance class, and then getting a few rows done in the evening is enough. But not in the fall. There have been days when I look up and three hours have gone by. Not good when you have a hefty to-do list sitting on the counter.

There are finished objects; there are new items cast on. Squee! It’s like Christmas morning!

First up, I knit a really pretty scarf pattern for my friend Michelle. I did a bunch of lightweight hats for a group of friends this summer. We are all going to wear them at the same time and look like some kind of a cult. That’s what we do for entertainment here in the Midwest. Anyway, what was I saying? Oh yeah. I did a hat for Michelle and she then asked if I could make her a scarf. We looked at patterns and settled on the Shifting Sands Scarf by Grumperina.

The original was done in sport weight yarn (somewhat light.) Michelle asked for an easy care, nonwool, so we chose Vanna’s Choice by Lion Brand. (All you acrylic haters just keep your pants on. There is wool ahead; I promise.) It was actually pretty nice to work with. It’s a worsted weight, which is heavier than the yarn originally specified, so I adjusted the pattern. I used larger needles (size 11) and reduced the width so it would be a comfortable seven inches. The larger needles opened the pattern up so it wasn’t too dense and inflexible. Here’s my lovely model Mari showing it off:

Nice stitch definition for a black yarn, don’t you think?

Another finished object is a pair of knee socks. Just in time, too. I’m going to wear them on Thanksgiving. Aren’t you excited to know that?

There are from a pattern called On Your Toes Socks by Ann Bud (Interweave Knits, Summer 2007). I bought this magazine because this pattern jumped out at me. I like to knit from the toe up because I can’t bear the thought of either running out of yarn or, heaven forbid, wasting any yarn because I made the top of the sock shorter than was necessary. Perhaps after a few more pairs I will have my specifications worked out and will be able to judge the yarn issue with more confidence.

I got the yarn for these at Purl in New York City. That store was one of the highlights of our trip. The yarn is Farmhouse Yarns Fannie’s Fingering Weight in color Sedona. The color is really bright for me. I generally wear black socks to go with all my black shoes, or white athletic socks with athletic shoes. Branching out these days!

Once these were finished I chose another sock pattern for my other pretty yarn I bought at Purl. This is Koigu in color P223.

The pattern I chose was another toe up sock, this one by Rosemary Waits. It’s called Fred and George Socks, named after the Weasley twins in Harry Potter. I love knitters.

I like the reverse image colors she designed. Mine will be only one color, but if I like the pattern I’ll do them again with stripes.

And if all that weren’t enough, and believe me, it’s not, I am still working away on the black Flirty Sweater. The sleeves are about halfway completed.

I really, really, really want to be done with this, but I have some holiday gifts that need to be the priority. I am doing a few rows here and there when I can.

Which brings us to the final item, a pretty cowl. It doesn’t look like much yet, but I don’t want to really show it anyway. Some gifts have to stay hidden.

I will reveal all after the holiday.

So that is that. Oh yeah, I’m still making coasters in between everything else. Whew. Not sure how I find time to cook meals these days!

What I’m really looking forward to is after Thanksgiving dinner, sitting down with a big slice of chocolate pie and knitting and knitting and knitting. Heavenly.

Cranberry Orange Bread

Laura’s Blog Entry

On Friday I made the mistake of mentioning on Facebook that I was baking. Now I have some folks waiting for this recipe so they can make it for Thanksgiving. I got this recipe from my third-grade teacher. We had a Thanksgiving feast in the classroom and this was one of the things we made. I’ve baked it nearly every year since. It’s more of a dessert than a savory bread. Very yummy, especially with a cup of orange flavored tea.

Cranberry Orange Bread

Makes 1 regular size loaf or 3 mini loaves

2 cups all purpose flour
1 cup sugar
1 ½ teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
½ teaspoon baking soda
¼ cup butter, cut into small pieces and chilled until needed
1 egg, slightly beaten
¾ cup orange juice
1 teaspoon grated orange peel
¾ cup fresh cranberries, chopped (I pulse them in the food processor until evenly chopped. Don’t over chop. You want nice size pieces, not puree

Grease bread pan and set aside. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Sift dry ingredients into a large bowl.

Cut in butter using a pastry blender or two knives until mixture is the consistency of coarse crumbs.

Mix in the egg, orange peel and juice. Fold in the chopped cranberries. Don’t over mix.

Spoon mixture into prepared bread pan.

Bake 1 hour and 10 minutes or until toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. (Bake approximately 18 minutes for mini loaves.)

Cool 5 minutes or so in the pans on a wire rack. Then remove from pans and let cool completely. This is a very crumbly bread and doesn’t cut well when it is warm. Use a serrated knife for best results.

Bread freezes well.