TODAY

IS 

CHRISTMAAAAAS

Merry Xmas. :D

Ha ha happy holidays. :D

After making cookies, dinner, pie, and burning a very argumentative DVD (grr, stupid encoding errors) I am officially lazy. XD I'll be back sometime before the new year. (^3^)

2 + 2

Some people out there are freaking awesome. Some people can take several simple things and make them into one awesome thing.

For example, the mathematical proof I shall hereafter call "Lovebiser's Equation":

redwork* + oblong panels = lovely redwork ornaments

tripart embroidered ornament by Lovebiser

click image to go to very clever tutorial

Some people see a plain shape and think "I can make that infinitely cuter."

Pomeranian Plushie by meow726, who also made a cow

And SOME people are fans of great video games and even pick out all the right items to properly katamaru and get them in the picture for plus 10 points.

 Zombieneko made the Prince. <3

Let's all petition her to make a Prince pattern. XD

皆さん、このまま色々な小物を作ってがんばりましょう！

Everybody 'round the world, let's keep making stuff! :D

*redwork and blackwork are essentially the same thing, except redwork is done in red. Seriously.

Survival Confirmed

I am back from California. ^-^

I am also still alive, despite the best efforts of low-altitude air turbulence. -,-'

And also, Xmas is FINALLY over. Finally. >w<

Back later with a post about making stuff that glows. :D

Cranberrilous*

*Like persimmonius, not really a word.

There is a new camera in the family.

★o(´∇｀*o)♪☆YAY!☆♪(o*´∇｀)o★

This excites and pleases me beyond all measures. At long last, I don’t have to use my ancient 3MP, 2x-zoom, fresh-batteries-last-five-minutes, flash-is-dead, low-exposure, why-can’t-the-ISO-ever-reach-100-for-the-love-of-god Sony. To be fair, Sony, I really liked you. You could take a decent picture if it was high noon on a sunny day and everything in the frame was absolutely stationary and nothing of a bright red hue was present in the immediate vicinity. But now you suck. Into the backup bag with ye. *clunk*

Hello, Olympus! I’mma call you “Ollie.” :D

In honor of Ollie For the purposes of a company Christmas party, there was some pie-making yesterday. The pie was required to have a Christmas flair about it, so my usual repertoire (apple, pumpkin, lemon) was of no use. Fortunately, there exists a lovely (read: extremely easy) recipe for cranberry pie.

I figured a cranberry pie must be really sour and tangy. The recipe is too easy, something has to be wrong with it. Maybe the pie bubbles over or burns easily or turns bitter. Something.

Nope.

Easiest damn pie ever.
Delicious as all hell.

I tweaked the original recipe just a little, and here it is:

Cranberry Pie

2 cans (16oz) of whole-berry cranberry sauce
1/3 cup brown sugar
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon nutmeg
2 tablespoons butter or margarine, softened
1 pie crust in 9” deep-dish pan

Preheat oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit. In a large bowl, mix all the ingredients together (except the crust in the pan, obviously) until there are no visible clumps of sugar or spices, and the buttery bits are small and evenly dispersed in the sauce. Pour cranberry filling into your pie crust; leave the fill level about a 1/4 inch from the absolute top, because the filling does rise a little bit. Bake pie in the preheated oven for about an hour, or until crust looks done.

If you want to decorate the top, you can make cut-outs from extra pie dough, bake them on a pan for a few minutes, and then put them on the finished pie. Or use chipped nuts; walnuts and pecans taste good with cranberries.

Optionally, I imagine you could top the nearly-finished pie with butter crumbles and it’d be similarly fantastic, if not more so:

Butter Crumbles

3/4 cup all-purpose flour
1/2 cup brown sugar
5 tablespoons butter or margarine, melted

Put everything in a bowl and stir it together until it’s crumbly. Put it on top of an open-face pie about ten minutes before it’s done and return crumble-topped pie to the oven for the rest of the ride.

Yay pie, yay camera. うれしい〜！>w<

Basic Geometry II

Welcome back to math class. :D
Actually, no.

In addendum to the Easy Softie Ball in 12 Pieces, there exists an even easier way to make a ball in six pieces. The 6-piece version, like the 12-piece, only requires the copying and cutting out of one form, but there are only half as many copies to make. Ergo, easier. Yay!

Now, if you're interested in the math behind the form, a 6-piece from peels is actually a little more complex than a 12-piece from pentagons. The 12-piece ball isn't actually a ball in Euclidian geometry: it's a dodecahedron that becomes a ball when you sew it up and stuff it because the pressure of the stuffing inside applies evenly across the planes, seams, and vertices. The 6-piece ball, on the other hand, is an actual, true sphere in design and execution. This is because it employs the relationship between the circumference and diameter of the circle formed by the cross section of the final sphere at maximum diameter.

And you thought this was a post about softies. >w<

By now, you might be asking "hey Ku, what am I supposed to do with all these plush balls?"

Here is your answer:

Inexpensive, unbreakable, toddler-safe Christmas ornaments. Ta-da~!

Cookie for You

When I was in high school, there was a little homemade ditty I shared with some good friends whenever we enjoyed a cookie after lunch. We called it the Cookie Song.

It went like this:

Cookie for me
Cookie for you
That’s the end of the song

My mother always made soft gingerbread cookies around the holidays to pass around to the family. I really didn’t like gingerbread when I was little, and I still don’t, but at the request of a family member, I made some this year. Here’s my mother’s soft gingerbread cookie recipe:

1 cup soft shortening
1 cup brown sugar
1 1/2 cup molasses (12 oz bottle)
2/3 cup cold water

7 cups flour
2 teaspoons baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons ginger
1 teaspoon allspice
1 teaspoon cloves
1 teaspoon cinnamon

Cream together shortening and sugar until fluffy. Slowly add molasses, blend well. Stir in water. Sift dry ingredients together and stir into molasses mixture. Chill until firm, about 5 hours. Roll out dough on floured surface 1/4 inch thick. Cut out cookies and place on lightly greased cookie sheets with at least a centimeter space between each cookie. Bake at 350 Fahrenheit for 10-12 minutes. Makes about 60 cookies.

I would really suggest cutting this recipe in half unless you’ve got a jones for gingerbread. Happy holidays!