Snow Day Games

Let's play a guessing game!
 

I’m not making an igloo for the neighborhood stray cat. I’m not chucking snowballs at the neighborhood kids. I’m not making AT-AT snowmen. Nope.

I’m checking on my garden…in a foot of snow.

For real, everyone! I have attempted the (nearly) impossible this year — a winter garden in my very own DIY cold frames. Cold frames are basically just boxes with glass or plastic covering the top to reflect the sunlight and warm the box. And that part, worked like a charm. Even in this crazy polar vortex, my cold frames did not go below freezing!

I simply placed my cold frames in a row in the garden, planted seeds, watered, and watched things grow. Some quick differences between regular gardening and cold frame gardening:

• Regular watering – since the ground is covered by glass, you will need to water regularly. However, I did not need to water nearly as often because the sealed box held moisture much longer. 
• Temperature – the reflected light causes the box to heat up much faster than surrounding air temperature. Too hot, and you’ll have pre-steamed greens. If the internal temperature of your boxes is above 80, simply open up the hatch to air it out. 
• Insulation –  The boxes work best to keep the temperature above freezing when the frames are sealed. At the ground level, piling a little mulch insulation around the base of the box helps to seal the snow and cold out. I also left a layer of fall leaves on the surface to help the ground stay warm.
• Sunlight - When snow covers the windows at the top of the cold frame, this adds natural insulation from the worse of the cold. However, plants do need sunlight, so if snow covers the box for more than a week, I do brush off the snow to let a little light it. 

Coconut Curd Chocolate French Macarons

 

The holidays are over and all of the gifts are unwrapped and packed away. What did you all get for Christmas?

I got curd. 

Yes, you read that right. I got curd. 

Now, like many Americans, when I was growing up I hadn't heard much of curd outside of little Miss Muffet's curd and whey snack (which is actually more like cottage cheese, but I digress...).

True curd is actually a dessert spread, similar to jam or jelly, but thick like pudding and very sweet. Fruit curds are a fancy dessert's best friend, like scones, tarts, and the French Macaron. It's a perfect pair for a fancy tea party.

While lemon curd is a common companion to the macaron, but there are many other flavors of curd around to try. This Christmas, I was given a jar of coconut curd from my mother-in-law. Inspired by the coconut chocolate candies that I make every holiday, I just knew that chocolate macaron shells would be a delicious pairing with the sweet coconut curd.

Happy Blog Birthday!

Happy Birthday to Tried & Twisted! My little blog is celebrating its first Blog-iversary!

2013 has been quite an eventful year for me. New blog, new hobbies, new job, new haircut. Life just keeps on changing and challenging, and I can't wait to meet what tomorrow brings!

Last January, I started writing this little blog as a dare to myself. As a creative person, I've always had a pile of projects. You know the type: crafts, decorations, and hobbies. But being busy with the rest of life, I struggled with giving myself permission to take the time to be creative. Sadly, that meant that I often rarely had time for a single project.

Creating a blog about my creative trial and errors gave me an excuse to give a little more importance to my hobbies and to allow myself to take time to play, to bake, to craft, and to just do all of the creative things I've always wanted to do!

Deck the Halls with Boughs All Nerdy

I'm always an advocate for being yourself, for letting your nerdy flag fly high. I apply that code to my life, my writing, my cooking, and my decorating -- even my holiday decorating! What's the point of decorating if it doesn't feel like it is comfortably "you".

This drive has developed into a bit of a theme on our Christmas tree. Perhaps this handful of ornaments just might amuse you. Care to take a little tour?

Salted Dark Chocolate Figs

Serendipity is finding the right Pinterest inspiration on a day when you can actually use it.

Every year, instead of Christmas cookies, my family has the tradition of making chocolate-covered candies.

While gathering ingredients and preparing a batch for dipping (read as: procrastinating on Pinterest), I stumbled across a picture of gourmet figs covered in salted dark chocolate. 

Why order a box, when I already had chocolate ready for dipping! 

DIY Our First Christmas Tree Ornament

In a budding relationship, there are so many important little moments to remember: the first date, the first dance, the first holiday. In all the hustle and bustle of such life-changing events, I love finding little momentos to cherish and save the story behind the memories.

On our first Christmas as a married couple, my husband and I joined my parents and my brother's family for a tractor ride out to Strathmeyer farms, braced against the cold with the comfort of free apples, to search for our first Christmas tree. We made our cuts and waited for the tractor's return to carry our trees back, as my little nephew helped by carrying his own little evergreen branch. My husband marked the trunk with his initials, now a part of my initials, so that our tree would not be lost among the others on the back of the wagon. When my husband trimmed off the bottom of the trunk, I saved the little disc with his initials and turned it into a Christmas tree ornament to commemorate our first tree.

DIY Stuffed Hobbes: The Rebirth of A Childhood Friend

How ever were children of the 80's and 90's to learn a good dose of fantasy, sarcasm, and an impressive vocabulary without the stories of Calvin and Hobbes?

Hobbes was a part of so many of our lives growing up, and that homocidal psycho jungle cat is just as cool now as he ever was.

As children, my brother collected all of the books, and together we mourned the tragedy of the comic's discontinuation from the local funny papers.

Now that my brother has little sons of his own, I felt the time had come for them to have their own adventures with dinosaur-flying spaceships and suicidal snowman while accompanied by their new best friend Hobbes.

However Bill Watterson, the creator of Calvin and Hobbes, chose not to license his characters for distribution, so you won't find a Hobbes doll sitting on the shelf at your local toy store. So the best option is to make your own*.