Happy April!

It has been a month since I last posted a word here. We are still in the PROCESS of buying a house. We should close around the 19Th of April. I'm not going to hold me breath, so far we have been packed since January ( the last deal fell through), I feel lost without my stuff.

I have been looking around Flickr at my contacts art and creations, inspiration is all around me. I've half a mind to unpack my stash just for some creative relief. I did try to locate a paintbrush for an hour the other day... I ended up huffing and puffing about how chaotic moving is and how much this sucks... but never found the paint brush.

I'm dying to garden, anyone who knows me knows I love dirt and all it has to offer. I've cleaned up the garden here, I will sorely miss it. As of today I have two pea patches, some lettuce and Swiss chard left here oh yes and a couple of potatoes are volunteering. I hope the new tenant likes to garden. The weather has been so pleasant, like it is begging for me to come out and plant early spring things. Alas, I cannot, I must wait for the new garden at my new home. Steve, my husband, is going to build me at least 3 big raised beds. He promises it will be one of our first projects to get done. Hallelujah !!!

One thing fun about moving is I feel like my next craft room will be much more organized in the beginning at least. My daughter and I have been separating the supplies as they are unearthed from wherever they had been stashed, I have a lot of supplies, that is what it boils down to.

I do have to admit I have bought more fabric in spite of the fact I am not going to be able to use it for a few more weeks... I could not help it. Whats worse, the shop I got this wonderful fabric from is closing and I feel the need to go get even more! Do I need to rationalize out loud why I need more? Probably not, but... Its on sale, its yummy and pretty , I'll make something fabulous and probably sell it... I need it. Thats right I need fabric :)

What I really need is to move so I stop feeling lost and chaotic.

Till next time,

Craft on.
Cytel

Home Purchase back to square 2

Update:

We got a loan all lined up YEAH!!! Previously you may know we found what seemed to be a pretty nice house, with a pool. It lacked a decent yard for my future garden but I was going to deal with that. I had a number of ideas. Anyhow we should have been closing in about 2 weeks... After they moved out we went back to see our new dream house OMG. We sent in the inspector and appraiser. HOLY S***T these people were horrible, they either lived like scoundrels or just destroyed as they left.

There was putrid standing water under the house that smelled like death. When you turned on the kitchen sink a meat like substance, looked kind of like fake crab meat came up in the shower stall in the bathroom. Not just a little either.. a 1/2 gallon at least. The vents from the furnace and water heater were broken off at the top so carbon monoxide just spewed... this is only the tippy top of problems. there were many many other repairs. To top it off the house was filthy and disgusting the cherry on top was a bookcase with books they left behind covered in puke. Grossssss. Anyhow I'd rather rent forever than buy a money pit like this.

So we have a loan and we are searching for another house. Wish us luck.

To tame the wild feeling I have been getting from this house buying I started my newest felted painting. It is only just started, but it is really turning out well.

Painting with Wool Fibers

I've started another of my Indian portraits in my First Nations series.

I don't know how I stayed away from it so long. Needlefelting is so soothing and calming. Pulling bits of wool fiber, combing together colors until I find just the right tone. Stabbing it relentlessly until I finally have formed the picture I wished to portray. It is a forgiving and is easy to manipulate.

I am choosing to do this one in black and white.. perhaps a bit of sepia just here and there.... like how a photo will age and the edges turn brown as the years pass. Plus my wool is not strictly pure shades of black, grey and white.

If any of you Wallowians have wool from your flocks or even know of anyone who shears I can always use new kinds and colors from different breeds in my work. I work with all sorts of wool from goats, rabbits, sheep and fibers from nature like cotton, silk, soybean.

The house buying is going... the previous owners (slobs) have moved out and we are beginning inspections. So far it looks OK at best... it is completely filthy and smelly. Smashed in vents, a smashed in door, dart holes all over a wall, dog crap all over the concrete . They just did not clean up after themselves ever since we made an offer a month and a half ago, I don't understand people. Also just seeing how dirty they lived leaves me to wonder if they always lived like that ... did they take care of the house this poorly all along?

Happy felting

Cytel

The home buying battle is nearly won!

Nearly and almost... but not quite. I have faith that it will be done by mid March and we will be moved in by April. YAY!!

In the meantime I decided to get over myself a little and make another wool painting. This one is indulgent and fanciful, I love it. It will be available in my Etsy shop when I am completely happy with all the little details.

My next picture is already on the table, it is a black and white American Indian portrait.

I did not fall off the face of the planet.

But It felt like it.

I have not been around the web much lately nor have my creative juices been flowing. I have been stressed to the max trying to buy a house. The stress of waiting to find out what various banks and lenders think has turned my eyebrows white ( which I plucked immediately) and my hair is greying at an alarming rate.

You would think that buying a house would not be to difficult with the housing market in complete shambles and empty houses on every street I walk dawn. Wrong, lenders don't seem to want to deal with the self employed. I thought I was part of the American backbone, a small business owner ... Our problem seems to be we earned to much money last year and it is worrisome for the lender...? Is it really a strange thing that my upholstery business has flourished in this harsh economy? I after all fix and repair what people used to throw away and buy new.... Now they cannot afford to be so wasteful and I am making a good living.

I just want to buy my own house not my landlords.

Anyhow, this is the stress that is causing me to age, to disappear and that has stolen my creative energy.

I am willing myself to no longer dwell on it, I have gotten out my wool and my paints, maybe something beautiful will come of this.

Happy New Year, May it be prosperous and fulfilling.

This year I have only one real goal and that is to delve deeper into my creative side , do my art and see where that leads in my life. I feel successful in my business, I'm very very proud of my child, and I'm happy. To soon my daughter will go off to college then on to her own life and I want to be doing what fulfills me. Therefore, more projects.

So to begin I have started a sampler of sorts, basically I'm embroidering a printed fabric I found at Ikea. It is a perfect canvas to practice stitches on. I have always admired embroidery, it is so textured and needlework can be really amazing. I want to be able to manipulate fibers in ways that are lush and full of life.

Here are a couple of pictures of the stitches I have learned. The leaf to the left is not as wonderful as I had imagined it would be but it is not finished and that will defiantly help.

The pomegranate above is composed of buttonhole stitches, lots of them.

The leaf is a square filling stitch and the stem in the middle is couching.

Im my quest to explore art more I am taking an online class, it is called Color Theory it is taught by Judy Perez a quilt and fiber artist. I just received the textile paints that are for the class and immediately got to playing.

I found right off that the paints bleed all over the fabric when I added water to thin them. I briefly read that there is other ways to thin them so they don't bleed... so I will have to look into that.

Anyhow, after a few little mistakes and learning opportunities I painted a hummingbird, a beetle and a dragonfly. The dragonfly was my fist attempt and you can see how much improvement there was between it and the others.

After painting I messed around and sewed some scraps around the pictures... pretty cool so far.

These will probably be post cards for my parents. I think they will enjoy that.

Smoked Duck with Cranberry Mango Chutney

Smoked Duck

This takes 3 days to make. You will cook and serve on day 3. This can be a finicky dish to prepare, it is really best to make a dry run before you try to impress guests. Read all the instruction thoroughly before starting and do not skip any of the steps.

5-6 Lb Muscovy duck ( each duck serves about 4 ) make as many as you need
¼ cup salt per gallon water used to brine.
1 orange cleaned and cut into quarters
1 onion quartered
one large rosemary sprig per bird
fresh thyme, marjoram, garlic
Adobo seasoning ( a seasoning mixture of salt, garlic and oregano, wing it if you can't locate it)
pepper

hickory smoke chips

Thaw bird at least 4 days in advance of serving.

Day 1
remove from package, pull out any pin feathers, trim off the neck flap, and all excess fat from around cavity. Rinse clean. Often ducks found at supermarkets are pre-brined but continue as though it was not. If your duck is still a little frozen that will be ok, it will thaw.

If the bird you have has not had the skin pricked all over then you must do it. You need to prick the skin many times but only prick the skin and fat, do not pierce the flesh if you can manage. Often the pre-brined ducks are also pierced if this is the case skip this step.

Brine the bird. In a large tub or food safe bucket mix together ¼ cup salt per gallon water to cover the bird or birds. Before adding raw bird taste water, you want a pleasant saltiness, not overly saturated, make the brine to your taste. Add bird or birds. Keep cold , and brine for one day.

Day 2
after 24 hour brine, remove birds from brine drain pull the necks, livers, hearts and whatever else is in there out.

Pat dry.

Stuff cavity with the orange and onion quarters as well as a rosemary sprig. Tie the legs together and fold the wings back and over themselves.

Mix your herbs, garlic, pepper and Adobo in a bowl then liberally apply to the surface of the ducks. Place ducks on a roasting rack in the roasting pan you plan to cook them in. Do the back side first then the breast ( so the herbs don't fall off the side you will see.

This is a dry marinade stage, if you have a safe refrigerator that you can leave the ducks uncovered for 24 hours in do that. If not cover ducks keeping them elevated off the floor of the container so the juices do not soak the back let rest over night. You want the duck skin to dry out.




Day 3 -Day of Serving
soak the smoke chips or make 2 foil packs with the dry chips, pierce a few times and set aside.

About 7 hours before you serve your duck remove and let stand on counter. Light your smoker. We use a standard Weber BBQ to do this. I have cut a coffee can down to 2 inches tall and drilled out 1” holes in the bottom. This is the smoke pan. You need to light 8-10 coals Use a bricket chimney and NOT LIGHTER FLUID you do not want the ducks to taste like lighter fluid.

When the coals are ready pour them into the coffee can pan pull to the side in a location that you can access to add smoke chips as needed.

Place the rack right from your roasting pan in the smoker if it fits. If not place the duck directly on the rack. add a few chips cover tightly, open a vent a little to keep the air flow.

At this stage you are not cooking the duck you are adding the smoked flavor. So keep only enough coals in the smoke pan to create smoke not create heat. Add coals as needed. Add wood chips as needed.

Smoke duck for 2 hours.

Heat oven to 225 F remove the ducks from smoker and cover with a lid or with foil as tightly as you can. The duck will now slowly cook for 3.5 hours steaming off some of the fat. The more tightly covered the more fat will drain. Check them after 2 hours and drain the fat if it begins to accumulate in bottom. You don't want the ducks to touch it after it has rendered off. Keep tightly covered and remove from oven at 3.5 hours.

Let the duck rest for 45 minutes.

Heat oven to 375 F uncover ducks and place in the hot oven for another 40 min. This is the stage when you are crisping up the skin.

Carve the duck tossing out the fatty parts of the skin.

Serve with Mango Cranberry Chutney or a sauce of your choice.


Cranberry Mango Chutney

1 bag fresh cranberries picked through and cleaned
2 large mangoes peeled and chopped
1 medium apple peeled cored and chopped
1 whole sweet red pepper
1 ½ cup sugar
1 cup finely chopped onion
½ cup white vinegar
2 TB finely chopped ginger root
1 TB lemon juice
2 tsp curry powder
½ tsp each nutmeg, cinnamon, and salt
1/3 cup chopped crystallized ginger

Combine everything in a large stainless or enamel saucepan. Bring to a boil, reduce heat and simmer uncovered 40 min or until fruits are tender and mixture is thickened. Stir occasionally.

To can, ladle the hot mixture into sterilized jars fill to within ½” of rim to allow for head space. Process 10 min for ½ pint jars and 15min for pint jars.

Excellent as an accompaniment with poultry.