My future book shelf…
July 9, 2011
July 1, 2011
Oh Summer, I'm so glad you have arrived
It’s been nearly two weeks since summer started and I’m very pleased that Summer has decided to bring proper, warm, summery weather (unlike the disappointing weather we had last summer). I still cannot reasonably go anywhere for the day without a sweater, but at least during the early afternoon I am free of the blasted things! Due to things out of my control, my first week of summer was, well, lackluster, but it was nice to actually get to sleep for a change. This past week has been much more productive, if not terribly thrilling, and I am checking things off my seemingly overwhelming to-do list.
Summer always seems to make me acutely aware of how much gas I use. I think it’s because I tend to drive between cities much more often during the summer. We recently acquired a new Ford Fiesta (it’s black and small and cute!) and I am certainly grateful for its fantastic MPG. On a small tank ($30 to fill your tank full!) it can go some pretty incredible distances. The tank is not more than 9 gallons. When you fill it up and look at the car’s estimated miles to empty it comes out around 400, and I have to say that it’s pretty accurate. Last weekend on 3/4 of a tank of gas I drove around 300 miles: San Diego to LA, a little bit within Santa Monica & West LA, LA to Irvine, Irvine to Anaheim, Anaheim to Irvine, and Irvine to San Diego. I’m pretty impressed, anyway. I should post a picture of the car up on here, but alas, I didn’t bother to take a picture when it was clean and shiny and, let’s be honest, I’m probably not going to wash it for awhile. I will have to post a picture some other time.
Speaking of photos, aren’t we cute?
Hopefully, you haven’t run screaming for your lives because of my creepy looking toes in that picture because we haven’t gotten to the fun part yet! Just before the end of school, some classmates and I had a BBQ in honor of summer, the end of the school year and an early birthday celebration. What’s a birthday celebration, even an early one, without a cake?! I made a carrot cake because the birthday girl said she likes carrot cake. I also used my awesome neon colors food coloring to make the frosting pink since she loves pink.
But first, a side note on carrots. Ever wonder what the exactly is the difference between baby carrots and regular carrots? Are baby carrots just that, young carrots? The answer is yes and no. A “true” baby carrot is a carrot grown and cultivated before the root reaches its mature size, hence it is a “baby” carrot. However, more commonly, in the US at least, is the manufactured or fake baby carrot. It all started when a California farmer, Mike Yurosek, got tired for having to throw away as much as 400 metric tons (that’s 1000 kg or 400 tonnes for our friends across the pond) per day due to imperfections. Back in the 1980s, he developed a method using a green bean cutter and a potato peeler to convert that part of his crop which was perfectly edible, though not so aesthetically pleasing, into the ubiquitous baby carrot of today. In 1999, peeled baby carrot sales surpassed that of whole carrots and 94% of US consumers bought baby carrots. (Source) Neat, right? Thank you, Mike Yurosek, from all of carrot kind. You’ve given each and every little carrot the chance to make it into a delicious carrot cake or onto a veggie platter.
I don’t think that carrot cake is a particularly popular cake. I used to have it for my birthdays as a little girl and then I lost touch with it for quite some years. I am happy to have it back in my life, because, when done well, it is quite a delicious cake.
To start out with, you’ll need to grate some carrots. There are a couple options to do this. You can grate the carrots by hand using a cheese grater. I’ve done this before. It certainly works, but it takes some time and effort. Watch out for your fingers as you grate the very end of the carrot. The grater can actually hurt a bit. The less industrious among us can go for option number 2, which is to toss the carrots into a food processor or one of those little mini choppers like I did. You’ll need 2 cups. I used baby carrots and I have no idea how many I used. Something less than 1 lb.
Once you’ve got your carrots prepared, in a large bowl blend together 2 cups of sugar, 1 cup oil and 4 eggs.
Next combine the dry ingredients in a separate bowl before mixing them into the wet ingredients…or just toss them in. I was in a separate bowl sort of mood when I made this, but it’s not crucial.
See that little tongue sticking out in the bottom right of the picture? Yes, those are my puppy slippers brought to you courtesy of my bff. Next add in your 2 cups of grated carrots and stir it all together. Pour this mixture into a greased and lightly floured pan and pop it in the oven. How long it needs to bake will depend on what type of pan you used. For example, I used a very deep 9” round pan and it took almost an hour to bake all the way through. If you use a sheet pan, and thus are making a thinner cake, it’ll be closer to 25 minutes. Just keep an eye on it and pull it out when it’s not sticky or jiggly anymore.
There it is! My Frankenstein of a carrot cake! Thank goodness for yummy frosting and sprinkles!
While you are waiting for the cake to cool, go ahead and whip up some cream cheese frosting, the classic companion for carrot cake. If you want to be awesome (I mean super super awesome) you could add chopped pecans to the frosting! Alas, I did not because most people I know don’t like nuts in anything! Such a tragedy!!!
Note: Neon food coloring is always appropriate.
When you’re ready to frost the cake and you’ve made a cake like this, there is a very important step—flip the cake upside down. This gives you a nice flat surface to frost. I could have split this cake in half and made two layers, but i decided to just have a really fat single layer cake instead. First put on a thin layer of frosting all around. This layer is like a primer or a crumb layer. You can cover it up with another layer of frosting once you’ve made all the crumbs that you’re going to make.
Frankenstein lives! I had some extra frosting and decided to play around with piping it. There were a couple problems with this 1) I have no artistic ability whatsoever 2) I hadn’t added enough powdered sugar to the frosting because I didn’t want it to be too sweet; it barely even clung on to the cake 3) cream cheese frosting doesn’t like warm apartments and 4) I have no artistic ability whatsoever. Fortunately for me, sprinkles and natural lighting can perform miracles:
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Carrot Cake
This recipe is from The Pioneer Woman
Ingredients
2. Mix sugar, oil & eggs in large bowl. In a separate bowl, sift together flour, salt, baking soda, baking powder & cinnamon.
3. Add the dry mixture to the large bowl and combine. Next add in the carrots and mix well.
4. Pour into a greased and floured pan (any kind you want - bundt pan, springform, round pans, sheet, 13x9, etc, etc). Bake at 350 F for 25-50 minutes depending on pan or until a tooth pick inserted near the center comes out clean.
5. Cool completely
Cream Cheese Frosting
Summer always seems to make me acutely aware of how much gas I use. I think it’s because I tend to drive between cities much more often during the summer. We recently acquired a new Ford Fiesta (it’s black and small and cute!) and I am certainly grateful for its fantastic MPG. On a small tank ($30 to fill your tank full!) it can go some pretty incredible distances. The tank is not more than 9 gallons. When you fill it up and look at the car’s estimated miles to empty it comes out around 400, and I have to say that it’s pretty accurate. Last weekend on 3/4 of a tank of gas I drove around 300 miles: San Diego to LA, a little bit within Santa Monica & West LA, LA to Irvine, Irvine to Anaheim, Anaheim to Irvine, and Irvine to San Diego. I’m pretty impressed, anyway. I should post a picture of the car up on here, but alas, I didn’t bother to take a picture when it was clean and shiny and, let’s be honest, I’m probably not going to wash it for awhile. I will have to post a picture some other time.
Speaking of photos, aren’t we cute?
Hopefully, you haven’t run screaming for your lives because of my creepy looking toes in that picture because we haven’t gotten to the fun part yet! Just before the end of school, some classmates and I had a BBQ in honor of summer, the end of the school year and an early birthday celebration. What’s a birthday celebration, even an early one, without a cake?! I made a carrot cake because the birthday girl said she likes carrot cake. I also used my awesome neon colors food coloring to make the frosting pink since she loves pink.
But first, a side note on carrots. Ever wonder what the exactly is the difference between baby carrots and regular carrots? Are baby carrots just that, young carrots? The answer is yes and no. A “true” baby carrot is a carrot grown and cultivated before the root reaches its mature size, hence it is a “baby” carrot. However, more commonly, in the US at least, is the manufactured or fake baby carrot. It all started when a California farmer, Mike Yurosek, got tired for having to throw away as much as 400 metric tons (that’s 1000 kg or 400 tonnes for our friends across the pond) per day due to imperfections. Back in the 1980s, he developed a method using a green bean cutter and a potato peeler to convert that part of his crop which was perfectly edible, though not so aesthetically pleasing, into the ubiquitous baby carrot of today. In 1999, peeled baby carrot sales surpassed that of whole carrots and 94% of US consumers bought baby carrots. (Source) Neat, right? Thank you, Mike Yurosek, from all of carrot kind. You’ve given each and every little carrot the chance to make it into a delicious carrot cake or onto a veggie platter.
I don’t think that carrot cake is a particularly popular cake. I used to have it for my birthdays as a little girl and then I lost touch with it for quite some years. I am happy to have it back in my life, because, when done well, it is quite a delicious cake.
To start out with, you’ll need to grate some carrots. There are a couple options to do this. You can grate the carrots by hand using a cheese grater. I’ve done this before. It certainly works, but it takes some time and effort. Watch out for your fingers as you grate the very end of the carrot. The grater can actually hurt a bit. The less industrious among us can go for option number 2, which is to toss the carrots into a food processor or one of those little mini choppers like I did. You’ll need 2 cups. I used baby carrots and I have no idea how many I used. Something less than 1 lb.
Once you’ve got your carrots prepared, in a large bowl blend together 2 cups of sugar, 1 cup oil and 4 eggs.
Next combine the dry ingredients in a separate bowl before mixing them into the wet ingredients…or just toss them in. I was in a separate bowl sort of mood when I made this, but it’s not crucial.
See that little tongue sticking out in the bottom right of the picture? Yes, those are my puppy slippers brought to you courtesy of my bff. Next add in your 2 cups of grated carrots and stir it all together. Pour this mixture into a greased and lightly floured pan and pop it in the oven. How long it needs to bake will depend on what type of pan you used. For example, I used a very deep 9” round pan and it took almost an hour to bake all the way through. If you use a sheet pan, and thus are making a thinner cake, it’ll be closer to 25 minutes. Just keep an eye on it and pull it out when it’s not sticky or jiggly anymore.
There it is! My Frankenstein of a carrot cake! Thank goodness for yummy frosting and sprinkles!
While you are waiting for the cake to cool, go ahead and whip up some cream cheese frosting, the classic companion for carrot cake. If you want to be awesome (I mean super super awesome) you could add chopped pecans to the frosting! Alas, I did not because most people I know don’t like nuts in anything! Such a tragedy!!!
Note: Neon food coloring is always appropriate.
When you’re ready to frost the cake and you’ve made a cake like this, there is a very important step—flip the cake upside down. This gives you a nice flat surface to frost. I could have split this cake in half and made two layers, but i decided to just have a really fat single layer cake instead. First put on a thin layer of frosting all around. This layer is like a primer or a crumb layer. You can cover it up with another layer of frosting once you’ve made all the crumbs that you’re going to make.
Frankenstein lives! I had some extra frosting and decided to play around with piping it. There were a couple problems with this 1) I have no artistic ability whatsoever 2) I hadn’t added enough powdered sugar to the frosting because I didn’t want it to be too sweet; it barely even clung on to the cake 3) cream cheese frosting doesn’t like warm apartments and 4) I have no artistic ability whatsoever. Fortunately for me, sprinkles and natural lighting can perform miracles:
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Carrot Cake
This recipe is from The Pioneer Woman
Ingredients
- 2 cups sugar
- 1 cup vegetable oil
- 4 whole eggs
- 2 cups flour
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 1 tsp baking soda
- 1 tsp baking powder
- 1 tsp ground cinnamon
- 2 cups grater carrots
2. Mix sugar, oil & eggs in large bowl. In a separate bowl, sift together flour, salt, baking soda, baking powder & cinnamon.
3. Add the dry mixture to the large bowl and combine. Next add in the carrots and mix well.
4. Pour into a greased and floured pan (any kind you want - bundt pan, springform, round pans, sheet, 13x9, etc, etc). Bake at 350 F for 25-50 minutes depending on pan or until a tooth pick inserted near the center comes out clean.
5. Cool completely
Cream Cheese Frosting
- 1/2 cup butter
- 8 oz (1 package) cream cheese
- 1 lb. powdered sugar
- 2 tsp vanilla
- 1 cup pecans, chopped finely (optional….but highly recommended if you can get away with it!!)
June 16, 2011
June 15, 2011
Ten Myths About Introverts
When I took the Meyers-Briggs personality assessment at the beginning of this school year, it confirmed what I already knew about myself—I am an introvert, a label that might be considered shameful by some, but I’ve accepted it. Not only am I an introvert, but I am a BIG introvert. I did not get a single point in the extrovert column. Not one…
Thus in honor of being labeled as a huge “I”, I present to you 10 common misconceptions about introverts:
Myth #1 – Introverts don’t like to talk.
This is not true. Introverts just don’t talk unless they have something to say. They hate small talk. Get an introvert talking about something they are interested in, and they won’t shut up for days.
Myth #2 – Introverts are shy.
Shyness has nothing to do with being an Introvert. Introverts are not necessarily afraid of people. What they need is a reason to interact. They don’t interact for the sake of interacting. If you want to talk to an Introvert, just start talking. Don’t worry about being polite.
Myth #3 – Introverts are rude.
Introverts often don’t see a reason for beating around the bush with social pleasantries. They want everyone to just be real and honest. Unfortunately, this is not acceptable in most settings, so Introverts can feel a lot of pressure to fit in, which they find exhausting.
Myth #4 – Introverts don’t like people.
On the contrary, Introverts intensely value the few friends they have. They can count their close friends on one hand. If you are lucky enough for an introvert to consider you a friend, you probably have a loyal ally for life. Once you have earned their respect as being a person of substance, you’re in.
Myth #5 – Introverts don’t like to go out in public.
Nonsense. Introverts just don’t like to go out in public FOR AS LONG. They also like to avoid the complications that are involved in public activities. They take in data and experiences very quickly, and as a result, don’t need to be there for long to “get it.” They’re ready to go home, recharge, and process it all. In fact, recharging is absolutely crucial for Introverts.
Myth #6 – Introverts always want to be alone.
Introverts are perfectly comfortable with their own thoughts. They think a lot. They daydream. They like to have problems to work on, puzzles to solve. But they can also get incredibly lonely if they don’t have anyone to share their discoveries with. They crave an authentic and sincere connection with ONE PERSON at a time.
Myth #7 – Introverts are weird.
Introverts are often individualists. They don’t follow the crowd. They’d prefer to be valued for their novel ways of living. They think for themselves and because of that, they often challenge the norm. They don’t make most decisions based on what is popular or trendy.
Myth #8 – Introverts are aloof nerds.
Introverts are people who primarily look inward, paying close attention to their thoughts and emotions. It’s not that they are incapable of paying attention to what is going on around them, it’s just that their inner world is much more stimulating and rewarding to them.
Myth #9 – Introverts don’t know how to relax and have fun.
Introverts typically relax at home or in nature, not in busy public places. Introverts are not thrill seekers and adrenaline junkies. If there is too much talking and noise going on, they shut down. Their brains are too sensitive to the neurotransmitter called Dopamine. Introverts and Extroverts have different dominant neuro-pathways. Just look it up.
Myth #10 – Introverts can fix themselves and become Extroverts.
Introverts cannot “fix themselves” and deserve respect for their natural temperament and contributions to the human race. In fact, one study (Silverman, 1986) showed that the percentage of Introverts increases with IQ.
Thus in honor of being labeled as a huge “I”, I present to you 10 common misconceptions about introverts:
Myth #1 – Introverts don’t like to talk.
This is not true. Introverts just don’t talk unless they have something to say. They hate small talk. Get an introvert talking about something they are interested in, and they won’t shut up for days.
Myth #2 – Introverts are shy.
Shyness has nothing to do with being an Introvert. Introverts are not necessarily afraid of people. What they need is a reason to interact. They don’t interact for the sake of interacting. If you want to talk to an Introvert, just start talking. Don’t worry about being polite.
Myth #3 – Introverts are rude.
Introverts often don’t see a reason for beating around the bush with social pleasantries. They want everyone to just be real and honest. Unfortunately, this is not acceptable in most settings, so Introverts can feel a lot of pressure to fit in, which they find exhausting.
Myth #4 – Introverts don’t like people.
On the contrary, Introverts intensely value the few friends they have. They can count their close friends on one hand. If you are lucky enough for an introvert to consider you a friend, you probably have a loyal ally for life. Once you have earned their respect as being a person of substance, you’re in.
Myth #5 – Introverts don’t like to go out in public.
Nonsense. Introverts just don’t like to go out in public FOR AS LONG. They also like to avoid the complications that are involved in public activities. They take in data and experiences very quickly, and as a result, don’t need to be there for long to “get it.” They’re ready to go home, recharge, and process it all. In fact, recharging is absolutely crucial for Introverts.
Myth #6 – Introverts always want to be alone.
Introverts are perfectly comfortable with their own thoughts. They think a lot. They daydream. They like to have problems to work on, puzzles to solve. But they can also get incredibly lonely if they don’t have anyone to share their discoveries with. They crave an authentic and sincere connection with ONE PERSON at a time.
Myth #7 – Introverts are weird.
Introverts are often individualists. They don’t follow the crowd. They’d prefer to be valued for their novel ways of living. They think for themselves and because of that, they often challenge the norm. They don’t make most decisions based on what is popular or trendy.
Myth #8 – Introverts are aloof nerds.
Introverts are people who primarily look inward, paying close attention to their thoughts and emotions. It’s not that they are incapable of paying attention to what is going on around them, it’s just that their inner world is much more stimulating and rewarding to them.
Myth #9 – Introverts don’t know how to relax and have fun.
Introverts typically relax at home or in nature, not in busy public places. Introverts are not thrill seekers and adrenaline junkies. If there is too much talking and noise going on, they shut down. Their brains are too sensitive to the neurotransmitter called Dopamine. Introverts and Extroverts have different dominant neuro-pathways. Just look it up.
Myth #10 – Introverts can fix themselves and become Extroverts.
Introverts cannot “fix themselves” and deserve respect for their natural temperament and contributions to the human race. In fact, one study (Silverman, 1986) showed that the percentage of Introverts increases with IQ.
June 13, 2011
A Rudimentary Crafting Foray
Five days until the official start of my summer and counting! I’m so excited not even the annoyance of one silly, pointless exam or the overwhelming hurdle of the last anatomy exam can get me too down. For one thing is just about exactly four days I will never again have to set foot in the anatomy lab unless I lose my mind and decide I really like it or something (yeah, like that’s going to happen). As countdowns are dwindling and coastal southern California’s “June gloom” sets in, things for me are becoming more real and more exciting! Even more exciting than the last day of anatomy ever! (Anatomy side note: I have even more respect for doctor’s of my mother’s generation, and earlier I’m sure, who not only suffered through the dehumanization process, gut-wrenching smell, and terrible awful cold that is part and parcel of anatomy, but they did it without gloves, and for some without the benefit of wearing scrubs! I would never have made it that way. I barely made it as it is. Thankfully, I have managed to not lose any of my fingers to frost bite yet) Last week, we got our marriage license. Who knew that passably interesting old (by California standards) buildings existed in Orange County?
Several loose ends for school were tied up and finished off last week as well. I can’t really believe that first year is really almost over and that we all really made it through those 30+ exams that seemed such a daunting number last August. This past weekend was spent with yummy food, cramming in some studying, and apartment hunting! We found a couple places we would very much like to live, but we have to wait a little bit before we get everything settled more firmly. And this week? This week is all about the head and neck and a little bit about everything else in the body.
Next weekend is the start of summer, which will kick off with a lovely little themed gathering of some of my favorite people! That brings me to the subject of this non-baking or cooking related post, namely, a craft project in honor of this little shindig. I’m going to preface this by saying this is probably the “craftiest” thing I’ve done/made in a few years. It was pretty fun. To start out this project, you’ll need a glue gun with glue sticks (you can find them for $5! at Target or Michaels), a pretty ridiculous hat to decorate, and whatever it is you want to use to decorate said hat.
Don’t forget the glue gun!
Something else that would be VERY helpful but is not pictured here is a pair of wire cutters. Without them, cutting the stems off the flowers will take a bit more effort and be a touch lacking in precision. To start out, if your hat has any sort of decoration on it that you don’t want, check to see if it was just glued on. In my case, there was a little string decoration on the hat. To remove it, take a blow dryer and blow it on the glue. The glue will heat up and you will be able to remove whatever it is you don’t want. Remember this technique, it is also your ctrl + z for this little project.
Next, use tape or a post-it to mark either the front of the hat or the part of the hat where you want your decorations. I marked the front of the hat.
Take your wired ribbon (the wire is important) and start gluing it around the base of hat. Make sure you start and end the ribbon underneath where you will eventually be putting the rest of the hat decoration, like I’ve done above. Before you glue down the top half of the end of the ribbon, use your nimble fingers if you’ve got them or some needle nose pliers to pull on the top wire so that the top of the ribbon lies flat against the hat. Bend the wire when you’ve got the ribbon lying how you’d like it. Once you’ve done that, go ahead and and glue down that last corner of ribbon.
Next, cut the stems off the flowers and cut the individual flowers off. Leave a bit of stem so you can glue the flower to the hat still. Practice arranging the different decorations without gluing them down. Once you’ve decided at least on the major components of the decoration you can start to glue them down. You just need a little bit of glue applied to the stem and then press and hold it to the hat for around 15 seconds so the glue has time to set. Careful not to burn your fingers, the glue can get very hot. Also, try not to accidentally let the glue drip on your fingers, they will burn (trust me, it stings quite a bit for a day or so)!
Just keep adding what you want in.
At this point, it took me quite some time to figure out how exactly to finish off the hat. The main objective that remained to fulfill is to cover up the stems so that the mechanics & support of the design aren’t seen from any direction. You can do this with ribbon, netting or tulle, other flowers or buds, feathers, anything you want really. After probably 10-15 minutes of playing around with it, I decided to add some tulle to the back and fill up the space on top, between the two large flowers, with ribbon and another bud. To add netting, tulle, or ribbon, you’re going to use the same technique. You’re going to make some unevenly sized loops of, for example tulle. Once you’ve done that to your satisfaction, take some floral wire (it’s thin and easy to bend) and wrap it around the base of the loops so that they stay. Finally, you will put the glue on the wire and attach it to the hat.
First I added the tulle on the back.
I then played around with the ribbon and bud to figure out how to fill that space in the middle without overwhelming the other elements.
I ended up putting two loops of ribbon (that you can’t see very well) at the bottom of everything and pulling them out a bit underneath the two flowers and on either side of the lower bud. Once you glue the base of the ribbon loops down, you can pull and arrange the loops however you like. Once I did that, I added another bud and some ribbon loops on the top to cover the stems and glue from above.
Voila! An awesomely fun and simple hat for a tea, hat & croquet themed shindig. All told, it took me around 2 hours to finish this, however, had I had all the proper equipment (i.e. wire cutters), no distractions, no finger burning incidents, less indecision on design, and a more ideal workspace set up (you know, not sitting on the floor, using a coffee table as the table, and having the glue gun plugged in about 3 feet above my head) it could easily be done in much less time (more like 20-30 minutes).
I never thought I’d say this about a craft project, but it was pretty fun. :)
I am very much indebted to these very helpful and instructional videos. I’ve no crafting abilities or know-how whatsoever of my own.
On a side note, I got my Gymboss timer this week!! I’m so excited!
Next week(-ish), carrot cake!
Several loose ends for school were tied up and finished off last week as well. I can’t really believe that first year is really almost over and that we all really made it through those 30+ exams that seemed such a daunting number last August. This past weekend was spent with yummy food, cramming in some studying, and apartment hunting! We found a couple places we would very much like to live, but we have to wait a little bit before we get everything settled more firmly. And this week? This week is all about the head and neck and a little bit about everything else in the body.
Next weekend is the start of summer, which will kick off with a lovely little themed gathering of some of my favorite people! That brings me to the subject of this non-baking or cooking related post, namely, a craft project in honor of this little shindig. I’m going to preface this by saying this is probably the “craftiest” thing I’ve done/made in a few years. It was pretty fun. To start out this project, you’ll need a glue gun with glue sticks (you can find them for $5! at Target or Michaels), a pretty ridiculous hat to decorate, and whatever it is you want to use to decorate said hat.
Don’t forget the glue gun!
Something else that would be VERY helpful but is not pictured here is a pair of wire cutters. Without them, cutting the stems off the flowers will take a bit more effort and be a touch lacking in precision. To start out, if your hat has any sort of decoration on it that you don’t want, check to see if it was just glued on. In my case, there was a little string decoration on the hat. To remove it, take a blow dryer and blow it on the glue. The glue will heat up and you will be able to remove whatever it is you don’t want. Remember this technique, it is also your ctrl + z for this little project.
Next, use tape or a post-it to mark either the front of the hat or the part of the hat where you want your decorations. I marked the front of the hat.
Take your wired ribbon (the wire is important) and start gluing it around the base of hat. Make sure you start and end the ribbon underneath where you will eventually be putting the rest of the hat decoration, like I’ve done above. Before you glue down the top half of the end of the ribbon, use your nimble fingers if you’ve got them or some needle nose pliers to pull on the top wire so that the top of the ribbon lies flat against the hat. Bend the wire when you’ve got the ribbon lying how you’d like it. Once you’ve done that, go ahead and and glue down that last corner of ribbon.
Next, cut the stems off the flowers and cut the individual flowers off. Leave a bit of stem so you can glue the flower to the hat still. Practice arranging the different decorations without gluing them down. Once you’ve decided at least on the major components of the decoration you can start to glue them down. You just need a little bit of glue applied to the stem and then press and hold it to the hat for around 15 seconds so the glue has time to set. Careful not to burn your fingers, the glue can get very hot. Also, try not to accidentally let the glue drip on your fingers, they will burn (trust me, it stings quite a bit for a day or so)!
Just keep adding what you want in.
At this point, it took me quite some time to figure out how exactly to finish off the hat. The main objective that remained to fulfill is to cover up the stems so that the mechanics & support of the design aren’t seen from any direction. You can do this with ribbon, netting or tulle, other flowers or buds, feathers, anything you want really. After probably 10-15 minutes of playing around with it, I decided to add some tulle to the back and fill up the space on top, between the two large flowers, with ribbon and another bud. To add netting, tulle, or ribbon, you’re going to use the same technique. You’re going to make some unevenly sized loops of, for example tulle. Once you’ve done that to your satisfaction, take some floral wire (it’s thin and easy to bend) and wrap it around the base of the loops so that they stay. Finally, you will put the glue on the wire and attach it to the hat.
First I added the tulle on the back.
I then played around with the ribbon and bud to figure out how to fill that space in the middle without overwhelming the other elements.
I ended up putting two loops of ribbon (that you can’t see very well) at the bottom of everything and pulling them out a bit underneath the two flowers and on either side of the lower bud. Once you glue the base of the ribbon loops down, you can pull and arrange the loops however you like. Once I did that, I added another bud and some ribbon loops on the top to cover the stems and glue from above.
Voila! An awesomely fun and simple hat for a tea, hat & croquet themed shindig. All told, it took me around 2 hours to finish this, however, had I had all the proper equipment (i.e. wire cutters), no distractions, no finger burning incidents, less indecision on design, and a more ideal workspace set up (you know, not sitting on the floor, using a coffee table as the table, and having the glue gun plugged in about 3 feet above my head) it could easily be done in much less time (more like 20-30 minutes).
I never thought I’d say this about a craft project, but it was pretty fun. :)
I am very much indebted to these very helpful and instructional videos. I’ve no crafting abilities or know-how whatsoever of my own.
On a side note, I got my Gymboss timer this week!! I’m so excited!
Next week(-ish), carrot cake!
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