Art Thursday -- January 15th

"The Escaping Train"

This one is by Corwin.  It's a train escaping a giant cage.  No idea what the floating thing is, though.

What-What?! Week of January 11th

Peter had to work this week.  It was lonely (due to a typo, this almost said 'lovely' -- oops!).  But making money and paying bills are good, so I guess that's okay.

Food wise, this week has been excellent.  Thursday, I made chicken and dumplings, based on The Pioneer Woman's recipe.  If anything from that recipe, the addition of corn flour to the biscuits is a unique touch that is worth doing.  I added masa to a recipe Bisquick biscuits, 'cause I don't look down on cheating. :P  If it's cold where you live, make this.  It is so, so good.

After that, on Saturday, the husband and I made a German-themed dinner of spatzle and schnitzel (no recipe for that, sorry).  This time, rather than making it "off the board" as is traditional, I used a flat cheese grater, which I pushed the batter through with a heat-proof spatula.  This made my spatzle much more consistent in size, and was much easier to do.

I started teaching Saffron how to cross stitch early this week, and she completed her first little motif:

She did most of the stitching herself, though I had to pull out sections sometimes for her to re-do (one time, there was a HUGE knot).  This next week, I think she's going to start on a cat one.

A picture of it in progress:

 

My project isn't finished yet.  I have to go to the store and buy supplies, since I've apparently lost stuff during the move.

The stages of making German helmets. (Introduction section)

For a somber read, I suggest looking through the WWI photos over at The Atlantic.  There are a lot of pictures there, including many showing somewhat unusual content, like animal hospitals, horse gas masks, and the soldiers from Middle East theater.  Some of the historical commentary is a bit untrue (like the sheer ridiculousness of Austria-Hungary's demands to Serbia), but for the most part it is very good.  Keep in mind, though, these are photos of war, and can be graphic in nature.