We are returning to a normal pace of life; still with unpacking to do, but pretty normal. The new kitchen is shaping up and getting more functional. There will be a post soon about its vintage loveliness.

But in the meantime, SOUP! I was craving my old favorite ham and navy bean soup, often made this time of year with leftover holiday ham. Beans and I don’t get along so well these days, so I was inspired to do a version with potatoes instead. Plus I figured I’d make it gluten-free. I started with a nice base recipe from Ateaspoonofhappiness.com for Potato Ham and Leek Soup that I found on Pinterest. Then I made some changes to lighten it up fat-wise, as well as added some of the flavors from my beloved bean soup. I cook mine much longer and I think the flavor really benefits from the extra time.

Here’s the result: Ham and Potato Winter Soup. I only did a half recipe and it was gone by lunch the next day. Pretty good endorsement! It has the balance I was looking for with the leeks. I don’t like them too strong or too bitter. I think using just the white part was the key on this. Plus I greatly reduced the amount of leeks used.

The hint of red pepper flakes gives it an extra zing of warming power without being super spicy. And the nutmeg just brings it all together.

Sorry there is no photo. It got eaten so fast, plus white soup rarely photographs well. Hope you enjoy it!

Ham and Potato Winter Soup

8-10 servings
Includes optional crock pot instructions below.

10 small red-skinned potatoes, skins on, chopped
2 quarts chicken stock (or vegetable, turkey or whatever you have on hand)
Bay leaf
3 leeks, whites only, minced (my leeks had only 2 inches of white, do less if yours are larger)
3 stalks of celery, chopped
3 carrots, chopped
¾ cup diced onion
½ teaspoon dried thyme
½ teaspoon dried italian herbs (or a mix of basil, oregano and parsley)
½ teaspoon salt
¼ teaspoon black pepper
Sprinkle of red pepper flakes, to taste
2 cups ham, diced into bite size pieces
½ cup all-purpose flour (or rice flour for gluten-free version)
¾ cup half-and-half
Pinch of ground nutmeg (added just before serving)

Put raw, diced potatoes in a stock pot or crock pot with the broth and bay leaf. Bring to a simmer while you cook the vegetables.

Soften the leeks, celery, carrot and onion in a skillet with a small splash of olive oil over medium heat. When the leeks just begin to brown add the dried spices (thyme and italian herbs) and salt, pepper and pepper flakes and cook one minute more.

Add vegetables to the broth mixture. Simmer until potatoes become tender. (Or 3 hours in crock pot on high.)

Add the chopped ham and leave on a low simmer a bit longer. (In the crock pot put it on low for another hour.)

In a cup with a secure lid, or an empty glass jar with a tight-fitting lid, measure the half-and-half. Add the ½ cup flour. Put on the lid and shake to thoroughly combine. Pour mixture into the soup and mix. Increase temperature to a simmer until soup thickens. (For crock pot, turn it back to high and cook another hour.)

Before serving add a pinch of ground nutmeg and mix well.

Final Shot

What a difference 51 days makes! We turned over the keys to our old house this past week. Beginning a NEW chapter in a NEW neighborhood in a NEW house. And buying a bit of NEW mid-century modern furniture. Moving is traumatic, isn’t it? Sheesh! Totally a First-World problem, though. I know. But exciting and draining and stressful all at the same time. Especially when you moving during a snowstorm. Charming.

Lots of new inspiration in our new home. Photos to be taken. Garden plantings to discover. (We’ve only seen it in winter. Don’t know what is out there, except some roses.) Basement craft studios to create. Kitchens to paint turquoise.

This is going to take awhile. I want to savor every moment along the way.

Well hello there. I haven’t forgotten about you. We are smack dab in the middle of attempting to sell our home and buy another. These things take time. Or they run at breakneck speed. There is no medium setting on this process, apparently.

So never fear, someday I will be back. With either a new home to photograph and share, or a lamenting tale of woe. One is definitely preferable to the other, but we are surrendering to the process. See you on the other side.

I don’t know about you, but by the end of summer I am kind of salad-ed out. I eat more salads each week than I can count, so when something new comes along I am shouting for joy!

Last year I started using cooked, cubed butternut squash on salads, but recently I found a new twist. MissChievous.com featured a killer fall salad. [Great site for makeup tutorials, by the way. She shows how to blend eye shadow colors for amazing effects!]

Her salad was made with seasoned, roasted pumpkin, but I had butternut squash on hand so I used that. One other substitution I made was that I used Garam Masala spice blend. it seemed to have similar ingredients to the Ras el Hanout spice mix she called for. I also went very light on the spices. I like a touch of curry, but nothing too strong.

The salad has lots of ingredients, but don’t be intimidated. It is easily simplified. If you only have the squash, spinach, figs and nuts like I did it will still be great! A feta cheese would probably be quite nice as well. And maybe some edamame. The options are endless. I found the fresh figs at Whole Foods. They are a wonderful addition to any salad.

I liked the dressing a lot. I think it needed a touch of sweetness that I will add next time. Honey, maple syrup, something like that.

With a cup of creamy potato or carrot ginger soup and it is the perfect fall meal. Here’s a video of her making the salad.

Can one ever have too many cups? I say probably, yes, but I plan to push to see where that boundary might be. Right now the limit seems to be the size of the cabinet. Luckily these new cups stack so I could squeeeeeze them in. Whew!

I really like the simplicity of restaurant dishware. These are a contemporary style and very thick. They keep my tea hot longer, which is a big deal. Thin cups are pretty, but useless.

These were found on a recent family thrifting trip to find Mari’s cosplay and Halloween costume as the Eleventh Doctor.

Definitions -

Cosplay: Dress up events for grown ups.

Eleventh Doctor: As in “Doctor Who,” the current Matt Smith version.

We are supportive of fandom obsessions, but cheap! Luckily we got the basics for her outfit.

The cups were half price, so all four were… wait for it… one dollar! Score! Happiness! Joy!

I enjoy thrifting way more that I probably should. The way I keep it in check is to generally buy things I need anyway. Like containers for organization or vintage sheets for quilting. The cups were not in this category, but hey, I only spent a dollar.

Getting the itch to go on another quest. I’m going to do some candlemaking, so I need to score some equipment for as little money as possible. Can’t wait!

Took some more vignette photos – this time in my bedroom. Photographing things makes you look at them in a fresh way. Been busy in the studio and knitting to stock up the shop for the holidays. Cooler temperatures make me so much more productive. At least it feels that way! Have a lovely week!

This animation was inspired by a video by Daniel Wurtzel called “Magic Carpet.” In “Magic Carpet,” a sheet of red fabric continuously flies in and out of a vortex of air. I thought it was really beautiful and I watched it over and over again. take a look yourself and then come back…

So I love to create things based on what inspires me. I also love to experiment. I wanted to see if I could create a similar animation in 3D. Using Cinema 4D, I was able to create a plane to which I applied soft-body dynamics which gave it the physical characteristics of a silky cloth. I then added several instances of a wind emitter in a radial Cloner with varying degrees of falloff and turbulence applied.

After a bit of tweaking, it worked. And while the simplicity of my animation didn’t exactly match the complexity of the original, real-world example, the digital fabric flew into the digital air and floated around beautifully.

I chose a white-on-white color palette to give a clean, soft and delicate feel to the animation. The fabric texture is also slightly transparent, which adds to that tone.

Rendering was slow; each frame taking well over 45 seconds to render. This was mostly due to the dynamics processing. But I was able to “record” the point-level animation using the Cappuccino tool in Cinema 4D. That plus some serious tweaking of the GI settings brought the renders down to about 8 seconds per frame.

Interesting side note on the Cappuccino tool in C4D. It requires the user to click and hold the mouse while the “recording” process takes place. In my case that would mean sitting at my desk, holding down the mouse button for well over 9000 frames. That I was not cool with. So after trying a few other things, I realized that I could program one of the buttons on my Wacom tablet as a “click lock.” This meant I could simply start Cappuccino with a click of my Wacom pen and then walk away.

So, back to the animation. I got the idea of making this into a music video after sharing my initial C4D file with my daughter – who is a huge fan of Owl City. I’ve taken her to see several Owl City shows and I remembered this one certain song, “Lonely Lullaby.” I thought it would be perfect match for the animation I was making… plus I thought it would be cool to present this video as a gift for my daughter. To remind her how much I love her.

So here it is. An extremely unofficial Owl City music video. A father-of-a-fan-made project, created with love for my daughter.

Enjoy.

Done! Just in time for the “Doctor Who,” Series Seven premiere this past Saturday. And what a doozy that premiere was, too!

In case you are living under a rock, like I was until last fall, on “Doctor Who,” The Doctor travels in a time machine called a T.A.R.D.I.S., which is an abbreviation for Time And Relative Dimension In Space. And it is styled – on the outside – to look like a British police call box. You know. So it blends in everywhere it lands. Or transports to. Or whatever you call arriving via time machine.

Mari is now a huge Whovian. Never before has a TV show pushed all the buttons of a 14-year-old girl. Combine a galactic adventure with friendship and science, add a heart-wrenching love affair and you’ve got a hit. With nary a vampire in sight!

So of course she needs some socks to properly display her geeky fangirl status.

Knitting Stats:

Pattern
TARDIS Socks by Keladry Bonnett

I did some modification to adjust the size as well as a different technique to achieve the gridded panels. Here’s a link to my Ravelry project page with notes on changes.

Yarn
Main Color: Knit Picks Stroll Solids, Heathers and Twists in Sapphire Heather, #22843 I love this yarn! The color has so much depth to it. Such a pretty shade.

Black: Knit Picks Stroll Solids, Heathers and Twists

White: Filatura Di Crosa Zarina, #1401

Totally fun knit! Next up for her, perhaps some Dalak fingerless gloves. Head to toe in Who! That’s the goal!

I curated this collection of Depeche Mode related items on Etsy. It’s the sweetest perfection. I want it all.

Here’s my little description paragraph. Cause I’m a geek.

Sometimes, the only way to shake the disease is to get a perfect item from this treasury devoted to Depeche Mode. How to choose? It’s just a question of lust. You’re sure to get some great reward.

The quilt top piecing is done on my latest quilt project. The fabric is from vintage sheets. This one is a throw-size. It’s so pretty and feminine. I’m quite torn about selling it. I’m kinda hoping no one buys it so I can keep it for myself. Not very lucrative, that way, though.

I started the quilting today, so it is moving along! Next I’ll need to buy some binding fabric. I’m really sad to have to go shopping… Yeah. Right.