kvass today

today my kvass looks like this.  bread is strained out and raisins  and peeled and quartered apples are added.  it is going in the fridge for a month where i hope i can be patient enough to "wait and see". my curiosity lacks patience. luckily i will be away for a week and and won't be able to check on it constantly and disturb it's quiet fermentation process:) 

off to my travel plans and being away.  9 days until my next kvass update. 

today

a busy week preparing for the 70th birthday of my step father with  travel plans too, kvass, regular daily and all the tangled strings of leaving home, so much this week.  i am so sorry i must put etsy on vacation these next 9 days.  so many treasury list inclusions and favorites and convos in the past week...it seems like people are awakening to spring and all it's unfolding things. 
tomorrow i will post of kvass and it's containering and finishing before putting it in the fridge for a month.  
but other than that i will be on holiday until a few days into may.  

kvass

today i begin another fermented beverage.  this one begins with whole grain bread which you dry out in the oven and then pour boiling water over.  wondering why i have to dry it out and then wet it?

my heritage has a bit of russian in it and this is related to that culture. i thought i would prepare this curiosity for my dad for his birthday this year. it takes about 1 month so i have just enough time.  he remembers drinking something like this in his early 20's which they had made at home.  it will be interesting to see if he actually will try it.  he doesn't really trust homemade concoctions.  he never opened and ate the pickles we canned for him one year for christmas.  he is leery of microbes.  i am too generally but what could possibly go wrong:)? 

today the bread, water, whey and grey sea salt combine and then will sit on the counter for 2 or 3 days covered before moving to the next step.  loving this sort of experimentation.  science i can totally relate to.  more to come on all the question marks about this project:)

a photo of my "new to me" electric wok.  it is a rescue from the goodwill thrift store so it has some clues to it's previous life experience...such as a missing handle...but i love all it's forms and the fact that there is no teflon coatings lurking beneath the lid.  it worked like a champ for steaming pork buns outside this week. looking forward to more outdoorsy cookery as the weather warms. 

blooms

revisiting my handmade paper and beeswax flowers again this spring.  it is surprising how much they look like the real deal of springtime flowering trees.  wanting to include them in my etsy packaging somehow.  their color is so fitting for my recent book i have been taking apart for packaging. 

i love the beeswax fragrance of them that stays lingering in the air long after their completion:)

kombucha colony

kombucha harvest day today and a photo of "betty galaxy" (my kombucha colony) and all her wonder floating on top of the recent batch.  she sure was bubbly today after 9 days of fermenting.  she loves this warmer weather. and she loves the darkness in the paper bag i place her in while she is at work on her black tea and sugar solution. 

she is pretty photogenic today in the morning light but she probably looks unappetizing to those who have not met her yet:)

cut and fold

i cut into my "new to me" book of a few posts ago with the cute map of france on the end papers.  a major breakthrough for me  for such a cute old book to go under the knife.  but i am so happy i did because it made two cute little folded paper boxes for an order of acorn pouches i shipped today.  i should have taken a picture but often when i am in the mode of creating i forget to capture it.  next time.  such sweet drawings in that old book with limited writing too and what is written is children's rhymes and whimsy:)  

buns

thought i would try another batch of steamed chicken buns today.  this will be my 4th go at such a thing and mostly because my family dearly loves a sweet doughy bun with chinese bbq chicken within.  it is sweet and savory perfection.

many layers of work probably taking 5 hours from start to finish and that is only if your chicken thighs are not frozen...mine are frozen.  dinner will be late:)
also hoping to put to good use a completely stainless steel (gasp...teflon free!) electric wok(i found at a thrift store) for steaming them.  it means i can cook out of doors and let the steam be free in the wind instead of on my kitchen windows.  

records

today i am listening to a stack of hawaiian music my mom wanted me to try.  it feels very restful to do so on this sunday.  my mind is so many places today except in this moment.  trying to get back here to this moment but my brain snatches at curiosities and can't break free.

pictured is a lucky recent thrift store find though not in such good shape.  i love it's scritchy scratchy ways in sound and the fact that the liner inside the cover still exists...oh and the red color of the vinyl...but why did they make it red? 

small

truly trying to expand into larger creative things but i get stuck in the small.  ever since the autumn i have not yet had the willingness in me to get back into things measuring more than 5 inches. i do love miniatures but i feel as if i am trapped within a small space within me i can't find my way out of. beginning a larger project means spreading out into multiple spaces and for the time being i am into small corners for my creative work.

i took my dress up skirt fabrics out yesterday to look and see if the inspiration was there. but i felt nothing.  bummer. wishing it felt okay to force the creative process. i made a list though of possibilities. 

perhaps i need to finish my home school year with the kids to find larger spaces in my day.  small creative space in my day seems the perfect match though for the scale of my work at the moment:) pictured is a tiny bouquet of handmade paper flowers in a cloud of lichen and acorn cap bowl. 

books

the friends of the library book sale was today.  i am always seeking old books to take apart into papers for boxing our tiny etsy items.  i found this today but i will probably fall too deeply in love with it to let it go to knife scissors and folds.  it happens all too often.  i have so many.

i love that this book says "my travelship" on it's cover for that is how i feel of each book and all it's detail.  written words with end papers, cloth coverings, spine, density and smell.  such transportation:)

walking

i used to walk the neighborhood streets for exercise with it's hard concrete, car exhaust and vented laundry smells and all the sounds of city life...but now i am so blessed to get to this open space, only minutes away by car. a new regional park we visit most days.  the trails are more like lawn at times.  and the uphill climbs expand my lungs like no other exercise.  heaven sent.  i needed this. 

i think a lot on my creative ideas, and here, in this green space, everything feels possible.

kombucha

it has been too long:) so i will start with today.  today i began another batch of kombucha...which i love.  i was given a small kombucha colony from my neighbor a few months ago and that colony and i, whom i call "betty galaxy", have become fast friends.  she makes the most delicious elixir and better with each new batch.  she started out so small, my little betty, and soon grew into this world of tiny bubbles and spots and strange cloudlike formations.  she looked like a little galaxy and thus.... the galaxy part of her name.  betty was my daughter's addition.

my son and i are the only ones who like to drink what betty hath made.  everyone else who i have offered a taste declines.  i feel a little sad when that happens because i feel so excited about it.  i find it completely refreshing and a little like the flavor of sparkling cider or hard cider in it's bright happy flavors and tiny bubbles.

i would have photographed betty today but she is really the least photogenic of anything in my home:)