Why I Oughta...

For Easter, my in-laws gave me this set of Beekman 1802 Heirloom Seeds.   They are part of the Beekman 1802 project  - which is billed as the 'World's Largest Community Garden" where 10,000 people all across the country grow the exact same thing from the same seeds.  You may know the Beekman's from their show , but I think the first time I came across them was when one of them was working for Martha Stewart.   She visited their farm back in 2011 . The set includes some items that I never considered growing including radishes and turnips.  Here's the full list. We're getting close to getting outdoors and planting the garden, so I guess I have to get planning!

My sister Vic gave me this Fighting Ilini candy bar for my birthday over the weekend.  Pretty clever idea by the folks at Russell Stover to license NCAA teams, isn't it?  Makes buying a chocolate bar a neat gift, doesn't it?  Thanks, Vic!

This song came on my radio when I was scrolling around and I'm (ashamed?) to say that I stuck with it.  Then re-wound and listened to it again.  Shame on me, right?

I was gifted this beautiful wood carving tool set on Friday which includes a 15 different tools including a bench and detail knife.  Along with this set, I'm now in possession of 4 different shaped blocks of basswood to get started.  I'm a novice when it comes to whittling, so I hesitate to call this a hobby.  My goal is to focus on a Halloween piece, which gives me six months to get a piece done.  Enough time?  I sure hope so.

After a lot of worrying, swearing, and a big mess, look what popped out of my little mold:  my first chocolate bunny.  I need to take a paring knife and clean up the seams, but I have to say that I'm quite (pleasantly) surprised by how this one turned out. I was very worried about the tempering of the chocolate, but I since Nat bought *nice* chocolate bars to use, there was more room for error?  I didn't use chips nor those Wilton discs. That's the great news.   The bad news?  Each one takes forever.  My goal was 12.  I've gotten just two of them done. The process is such that you temper the chocolate then pour it into the bottom of the mold.  Tap it around and then pour it back out.  Then wait.  And wait.  Until it sets.  All the while keeping the chocolate warm.  Then, you pour in the chocolate again to build up a second layer.  Then pour it out.  And...wait.  Then..repeat a 3rd time.  Soon, you have a bunny that has a cavity in the middle that you can fill wi

This is the second year I've made Faux Chocolate Bunnies out of Water Putty and reproductions of vintage chocolate molds.  The picture above was shot last night after applying the first coat of chocolate-colored brown paint.  A few more coats plus one or two coats of a clear acrylic spray to give 'em a little bit of shine and they'll be ready to go. These are decidedly more vintage that last year's version and I think because of that I like them a little bit better.  The mold was a lot more complex with little nooks/crannies that I couldn't always get the bubbles out from, so there are a few tiny voids, but for the most part you wouldn't notice them unless I pointed them out. I also made a decision to leave a good bit of the 'seam' in the middle of the bunny on purpose.  I took out my Dremel and ground it down to a very slight ridge, but since these things are supposed to replicate chocolate bunnies (which have the seam), I wasn't that worried

At least that's my goal:  going to try my hand at tempering chocolate , pouring it into this mold (which is about 4 inches tall), letting the mold get coated, pouring the chocolate out, letting the mold set then repeat two or three more times.  Followed by filling the interior of the mold with a peanut butter/powdered sugar combo then sealing off the bottom with even more chocolate. I'd like to make a dozen or so of them.  Ambitious, that's for sure.

Those of you who are still getting the dead-tree-version of the Chicago Tribune were greeted with this grizzly sight this morning:  my mug on the cover of the Arts & Entertainment section. We hosted our US Launch event at the Art Institute of Chicago for the second round of the Google Art Project.   The Tribune did a nice job covering the details of the project.   There are plenty of things that Google is involved with that are "cool", but this in particular is a neat project because it breaks down so many barriers and allows *anyone* in the world to enjoy and participate in arts and culture.

I had forgotten that I planted a strawberry plant last year.  In the mess and chaos that came from my overgrown gords and pumpkins, this little plant was buried.  Apparently, it didn't care much as he's sprung back up and is VERY green.

I was able to spend a lot of time with the Babe today, so we needed some activities.  We went looking for some Easter presents and came across the bubble machine.  It was just $5, so I figured it wouldn't do much.  Boy, was I wrong.  It churns out a VERY stead stream of bubbles and just keeps going.  It operates on four double-A batteries.