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somediyprojects · 1 year ago

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DIY Utility Bucket Ottoman

Project by Commonwealth Vintage Rentals and Revive Upholstery & Design:

I love a clever DIY project, especially when it uses an unexpected or overlooked material. This project uses a humble orange utility bucket as the base of an amazing upholstered ottoman. The product of a collaboration between Liz and Rachel of Commonwealth Vintage Rentals and Leland of Revive Upholstery & Design, this utility bucket ottoman was inspired by a trip to Home Depot. Looking for materials to build their own furniture, Liz and Rachel stumbled upon this bucket and explained that they were “hesitant and a little embarrassed to even think of using a plastic bucket,” but they were swayed by the (low) price and decided to pick up a few and team up with Leland to create something custom. Using Pendleton fabric, Leland upholstered the bucket (I never thought I’d write that sentence) and created a project that proves, without a doubt, that even the simplest and least expensive materials can be turned into something beautiful with a little hard work. Thanks so much to Liz, Rachel and Leland for sharing this how-to with us! xo, grace

Materials

yardage for fabric

chalk

scissors

spray Glue

stapler

5-gallon utility bucket

ruler

turkey carver

sewing machine

tape measurer

piping foot (The cord we used is 5/32 and is sold by the yard.)

foam (20′ square of 3” high-density foam and 60” x 1” of foam)

Dacron

square ruler

Instructions

1. Take off the bucket handle and measure the top of the bucket (38″) — the bucket tapers at the bottom, so you need to measure the top and bottom — measure the bottom (33”) and measure the height (17 1/2”). You can also wrap the foam around the bucket and cut accordingly.

2. Mark out the foam with your ruler. Draw out 38”, mark the middle of it and split from the center 33”. Measure 17 1/2” for the vertical foam with the height of the top layer of foam. Cut foam.

3. Spray glue on the bucket and foam, and wait a few seconds for the glue to set and get tacky.

4. Take the lid and trace the top of it onto 3” high-density foam. Spray glue the lid to the foam. Take your turkey carver and cut around the edges of the lid. Snap the lid back onto the bucket. Bring the 1” foam around the lip of the 3” foam.

5. Trim any extra pieces.

6. Take Dacron and spray it with glue to the top of the bucket. Cut off the remaining pieces. Continue to wrap and spray glue the bucket with Dacron. Trim the top but leave extra Dacron on the bottom for finishing.

7. Measure and draw out the longest side of your pattern and mark the center. Take your square and line it up with the edge of your fabric and the center mark. Draw out the height of your pattern on your square. (Note: It is always smart to add 1–2” of extra fabric to your height for fitting; it can always be trimmed down later.) Once the height has been drawn, use your square again to mark the length of the opposite side (remember your height line is at the center, so measure half the length on each side of your center mark). When the two lengths have been drawn out, use your ruler to connect the ends, giving you a nice straight taper.

8. Cut the piping fabric 1 1/2” wide and the same length as the top 46”. Cut the top piece in a 16” circle (allows seam allowance) either by tracing the top or using a string and pencil.

9. Fold the fabric in half and clip the middle top corner. Do the same with the circle piece.

10. Sew in the piping with welt foot. Extend the fabric a small amount past the piping. Sew a 1/2” from the needle. When you start to sew piping on the circular piece, start just in from the cut edge. Cut relief cuts around the perimeter so that the fabric doesn’t pucker when sewn into the side panel. Note: Sew fabric on the piping first, then line up the edge of the piping and the edge of the circle fabric and begin sewing. Make small relief cuts in your piping so it is easier to sew.

11. With side panel folded, sew from the top down with at least 2” at the bottom open, so that it fits over the top of the ottoman.

12. With the seam of the side panel laid flat and the seam of the top panel, start to sew the two pieces together.

13. Test-fit the fabric to make sure it fits smoothly over the ottoman. This requires a little finessing of the fabric to get a snug fit.

14. If fit is smooth, remove the fabric and cut the extra fabric around the edges so the end product has a flush, smooth surface.

15. Pull the fabric over the ottoman again. Rotate it, pulling downward on each side. After the fabric is smooth and in place, staple the fabric to the bottom of the bucket. Start stapling in sections around the circle and then go back and staple in between. If you just went fully around the first time, you would end up with extra fabric at the end and the pattern could be crooked.

16. Take a razor blade and cut off the extra fabric.

17. The last step is a dust cover for the bottom. Voila!

#diy #crafts #storage #x

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passivenovember · 4 years ago

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Tetherball : Harringrove April Day One

Also on ao3

Steve put his seatbelt on that first day, when Billy stepped out of his chariot across school grounds, taking inventory of things as they were. Life as Steve knew it.

Nancy in the seat next to him.

First period chemistry, English, Geology, lunch. Steve took note of the periwinkle tones in the sky, the rumble of the cafeteria on pizza day, the smell of the library and the way the books turned on you if there were late fees to be settled.

Everything fell into bullet points across worn pavement.

Then versus now. Before and after.

Steve said goodbye to planet Earth that day, whether he knew it or not. Whether he found it favorable. The rumble of an engine beneath his feet changed Steve's perception, and the weight of two blue medallions grew and grew until Steve had learned the facts.

William Hargrove went by Billy. And he had tumbled in from California, presumably naked on a sea shell, where Billy’s stepsister doused hatred like a flame in the ocean under skies full of seagulls and cotton candy wisps.

He wore elevens in converse and a large Hawkins Phys Ed t-shirt that popped seams across his biceps but went soft and wavy in the middle.

Not like it mattered, though.

William went by Billy and he called skins as soon as coach blew the whistle. His t-shirt never made another appearance after that.

That's all Steve needed to know, right? The basics. California and step sisters, William instead of Billy, and the sound of rubber on polished oak.

But that's the funny thing about revelations.

Facts are different when colored by opinions, and Steve felt them dropping like coins from the hole in his pocket. As he got to know Billy the bullet points that had taken over Steve's mind rippled and glimmered in the light of first period. Changing.

He observed.

Wondered.

Obsessed.

Developing thoughts about who Billy was and, eventually, the person he pretended to be. Steve wasn't interested in the line Billy drew around the two halves of a whole. Any of the masks he wore in the cafeteria around princesses and prom queens versus the man Steve saw in second period English, who was.

Soft spoken and thoughtful. Every pastel shade in the sky versus brash and heated sunsets over barley.

Flame and sea, like a burning ship at war.

Steve wasn't interested but he learned anyway. Took notes, eyes tracking the brush of Billy's thumb on his bottom lip, brows pinching in concentration as he deciphered the root of a poem in ten seconds flat. The curl of his lips when we took his paper from Mr. Terrine. How he always had an extra pencil for anyone who needed it.

Before long Steve aced his exam in AP Hargrove and failed where everyone else said it mattered.

Got himself a tutor.

Blue eyes to pin him in place, pink lips to seal the passage between worlds. Steve wasn't interested in spending his afternoons under a tetherball, smacking brightly colored plastic out of his face as Billy read to him from a textbook while his sister. Max (step sister, Billy's voice supplied), kicked some girls ass on on the skateboard during softball practice.

"Should we try it once more?" Billy's patient. Steve wasn't expecting that.

He smacks the ball away again. "I've learned a lot about you, but I wasn't expecting this."

"What's that supposed to mean?"

"Y'know." From across the playground Max teaches her girl how to kick flip. Steve doesn't think that's right. He shrugs anyway. "Smarts. Like, AP biology, Valedictorian, Brain stew smart."

They've been studying together for weeks.

Four weeks. Seems like more with the slide of Billy's shoulder against Steve's arm, blonde ringlets dodging the tetherball as it swings overhead. Billy's fingers brush the open faced textbook, mouth serious but eyes soft. Sparkly, like a discarded bag of glitter.

"Maybe you should pay more attention to the prose."

"Maybe I can do both at the same time." Steve fiddles with the edge of the notebook, nodding as Billy grins. "Alright, goldilocks, tell your silly little story."

He does.

The green eyed boy in the powder blue shirt standing next to you in the supermarket recoils as if hit,

repeatedly,

by a lot of men, as if he has a history of it.

Steve leans back against the rusty iron pole, feeling the weight of the tetherball on one side of his head, and. The brush of golden curls on the other. He closes his eyes, feeling a voice more than hearing it.

That is not your problem. You have your own body to deal with.

The lamp by the bed is broken--

"Are you following?" Billy asks. He moves, knees drawn up so the book is balanced close to the curve of his chin. Close to the split in the universe. "We're getting into muddy waters here--"

"'S not that muddy."

"Sure it is." Billy's cheeks flush, pink paint across the bridge of his nose. He moves against Steve's arm, elbow knocking into ribs. "Tell me what you think is happening."

Steve thinks about it.

Knocks Billy's arm away gently, closing his eyes. "Read some more and then we'll talk."

Billy does.

The lamp by the bed is broken. You are feeling things he is no longer in touch with a nd everyone is speaking softly, as if not to wake one another.

The wind knocks the heads of the flowers together. Steam rises from every cup at every table at once.

Things happen all the time.

Things happen at every minute that have nothing to do with us.

Billy stops reading and Steve peeks at him through an eye half-lidded, curious. "Is that the end of the story?"

"Poem."

"Huh." Steve straightens, moving his legs this way and that. "Felt like a story."

Billy mirrors him exactly, closing the textbook and grabbing his pencil. "That's interesting."

And the way he says it. While flipping through his pea-green fivestar spiral, makes it feel wrong. Stupid.

Steve smacks distantly at the sky. "No it's not."

"Sure it is. Siken's poems are very lyrical. They paint images, vivid images, and sometimes I can imagine myself doing what the lines convey."

Steve grins. "You can imagine yourself in bed with another man?"

Steve isn't interested in the answer but he's interested in the feeling, the glint of emotion behind a wall of powdery blue. It doesn't seep through the cracks, though, it's contained. If Steve wants to find the center, he'll have to dig.

Billy doesn't miss a beat. "If that's what you think the poem's talking about, sure."

"Of course that's what it's talking about."

"How so?"

Steve laughs at that, rubbing against Billy's side. "You sound like a scholar."

"Is that so wrong?"

"No." Steve says thoughtfully. "'S cute."

Billy doesn't crack. Not in the way Steve's used to. No fingers in his hair, spinning spools of gold as he peeks at Steve through thick lashes. Instead he makes a note of it, whatever it is they're saying. Scribbling Steve's interpretation on one side of the blank page, dividing the two halves with a thick black line.

Billy intends to find the truth. "The protagonist is in love with the man at the supermarket? Is that what you're saying."

"I guess."

Billy rolls his eyes. "Your intent has to be clear. Poetry is all about interpretation; if you don't attempt to bridge the divide--"

"All right, Einstein." Steve plays along. "Sure."

Billy's eyes flash victorious as he clicks the pen trigger. "What makes you say that?"

"The way he's obsessed with him."

"The way the narrator is obsessed?" Billy leans forward, intent. "With the man in the grocery store?"

"What makes you deny it?" Steve wonders, folding his legs beneath him so they're crisscross applesauce.

Billy leans back against the pole, casual and easy. "I'm not the one failing English."

"No, but you are the poet." Steve counters. "Dude, I know you have an interpretation. I know you have thoughts, so. Just tell me."

Billy turns to face the playground.

Max skates circles around her girl, smiling in the way Billy does when he's got Steve pinned on the court. Like a predator. Pushing and pulling back just enough to leave the girl chasing after her, enough to catch herself before Max has a chance to get her claws out.

It's incredible, Steve thinks, how much Billy is just like his sister.

"I think he's using him."

Steve cocks his head, curious.

"The man with the blue shirt." Billy opens the textbook and reads the part about the lamp again, peeking up at Steve through frizzy curls. "The narrator says we are feeling things the man is no longer in touch with."

Steve leans forward. "Like love?"

Billy thinks about it. "No."

"Connection, then."

"If they're sleeping together it's more than just sex." Billy counters, "More than just carnality."

Which.

Steve frowns. "People fuck all the time without connecting."

"Really?"

"Yeah." Steve thinks about rattling down his list. The girls, the guys, the one night stands and bullshit post-game hook ups.

Billy fiddles with the edges of his notebook almost. Shyly. "People have sex because they're in love."

Steve snorts. "There's a million reasons to fuck outside of love."

Billy's eyes flash hard with.

Something. He bares his teeth. "Yeah? Like what?"

"I dunno. Breakup sex, makeup sex, sorry for burning a hole in your prom dress sex--"

"Gross."

"Point is." Steve looks at Billy. Studies him, the freckles across his upper lip, the scruff along his jawline. "Sex and emotion don't have to exist within each other."

Billy stares back at him, eyes wide and distant. Closed off.

He writes something on Steve's half of the notebook. "I disagree."

"Yeah?"

"Yeah." Billy tosses his pen to the ground. "Our narrator says the man in the blue shirt has a history of being hit by other men."

"So?" Steve has trouble following at the best of times, and this.

The way Billy is worrying the skin on his fingers, nails catching and tearing in places they don't belong, feels important.

Billy shrugs. "Why would he sleep with a man without knowing his heart?"

"Maybe he just wants to feel something."

"Or maybe he wants to connect." Billy turns to look out across the playground once more, fingers tugging at the edge of his notebook. "Maybe he's existing in this bubble, like. This silent world with a tiny room where everyone is speaking softly out of respect. Maybe he chooses the wrong person because it's better than feeling half alive."

Steve knows they aren't talking about the poem anymore.

He tugs the notebook from Billy's hands, flipping through a million and one handwritten theories and observations. Billy lets him. Lets Steve look through his life and into his mind before handing the spiral back and asking, "Have you ever picked the wrong person?"

Billy doesn't say anything and then; "Yes."

"How come?"

"Everybody's wrong if you squint hard enough."

Steve nods, looping his arms around his knees. "And I'm assuming you didn't sleep with any of them."

He doesn't expect Billy to answer. It's not like they owe each other anything, honesty or otherwise. Billy leans back against the pole once more. From where their bodies are pressed together Billy feels feverish. Incendiary.

Billy clears his throat. "Or the opposite."

Which catches Steve off guard.

Billy watches him for a moment, eyes dark and serious. "I don't think the narrator sleeps with the man in the blue shirt. Maybe he intends to. Take the guy home, make a couple drinks, blaze trails into something previously unknown to him or maybe just. A feeling he hasn't felt in a while. But intimacy isn't always about sex."

Steve snorts. "I can't think of anything more intimate than being inside another person."

"But you are inside them, just. Not in the way you expected."

Steve glares out over the playground. The sun will be setting soon, blacktops and brown fields painted in shades of red and orange. The whole world will catch on fire but Steve feels the beginning, coals glowing bright red under the line of his ribcage when he turns to find blue eyes on him.

Dousing the fire, or maybe.

Raising the stakes. His eyes flit across Billy's forehead, brushing over his lips and coming to rest on his eyelashes. Feathery and soft, like the arms of a teddy bear. Steve licks his lips, going up in flame when Billy's eyes track the movement.

"I lied." Steve says.

Billy doesn't look away. "I'm not sure what you--"

"The first time a boy ever kissed me." Steve says. "When a boy kissed me because he wanted to, that was more intimate than anything I'd ever felt before."

Billy's gaze falls impossibly lower, tracing the swell of Steve's lips. "How did it feel?"

And he says it like.

He couldn't possibly know.

And Steve says, "Like my heart was taking root," like.

Let me show you.

Billy takes a deep breath. "I don't think I've ever felt like that."

"Never?"

"Not once."

From across the playground Max's answering laugh makes Billy's skin turn gold. Caramel, ice cream topped with sugar. Steve feels his body inching closer, mouth opening as if to taste love on the air.

#harringrove #billy hargrove #steve harrington #spring #idiots in love #first kiss #day one

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cookingmywaythroughcarryon · 5 years ago

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BACON CINNAMON BUNS

Continuing our “cooking during quarantine” version of this blog! I have managed to procure some yeast, so here we go with a recipe I’ve been wanting to make! Thanks to fiction-food.com for this recipe! This references a passage in the book and combines two foods mentioned into one spectacular dish!

This is a bit I love from the book and the inspiration for this recipe on the fiction-food.com blog.

Baz:

“I raise my eyebrows, and he laughs. "Calm down, miracle boy, I'm still a vampire––you still smell like bacon and homemade cinnamon buns."

"How can I smell like bacon and homemade cinnamon buns?"

"You smell like something I'd gladly eat." (Chapter 71, Carry On by Rainbow Rowell)

Be warned--this recipe takes a few hours for the dough to rise twice so budget that in when you are making it!

Ingredients:

Buns:

2 Tbsp. Active Dry Yeast

1/4 Cup Hot Water (but not boiling! I used the microwave to heat it up)

1 Cup Milk (I used lactose free because that’s what we have here)

1/4 Cup Butter, sliced

1/4 Cup Sugar + a pinch more for the yeast

1 tsp. Salt

1 Egg, room temperature

3 1/2 Cups Flour

Filling:

1 pkg. Center Cut Thick Bacon, uncooked (mine was maple flavored but you can use plain)

1/2 Cup Dark Brown Sugar (recipe said 1/2 cup but I added a bit more--like a heaping 1/2 cup instead of flat)

2 tsp. Ground Cinnamon (as with the brown sugar I added another 1/2 tsp)

2 Tbsp. Butter, melted

Glaze:

1 Tbsp. Butter, room temperature/soft

1 Cup Powdered Sugar

2 Tbsp. Milk, warm

1 tsp. Vanilla Extract (recipe on website said 1/2 tsp but we like vanilla flavor so I used a whole tsp)

Pinch of Salt

Method:

Place the yeast into a bowl & add the hot/very warm water and just. a pinch of sugar. Let that sit while you warm up the milk (the yeast needs about 10 minutes to foam up).

Pour the milk in a pot over medium heat & add in the 1/4 cup butter, 1/4 cup sugar, and1 tsp. salt. Stir until the butter is melted. Don’t let it boil. Remove from heat & let sit for a few minutes until the yeast's 10 minutes are up.

Whisk the egg into the milk mixture once the milk mixture has cooled down a bit. Once that’s mixed, whisk in the yeast mixture, until they are all fully combined. Pour into a large mixing bowl fitted with a dough hook (I used my KitchenAid) and add the flour little by little, making sure to mix on low to medium speed, until a dough is formed. The dough should be somewhat ball shaped. You can flour your hand and shape it into a ball but I didn’t need to do that.

Here is the dough attachment:

Here is the dough mixing:

Here is dough before rising:

Cover the bowl with a towel slightly damp towel (I used hot water to moisten it. I hate the word moisten, omg) and then let the dough rise for an hour, or until it's double in size. (Mine was a bit more than double.)

When the dough is almost finished rising, heat your oven to 350ºF. Line a large baking tray (one that has sides or a rim) with foil, folding the excess over the edges of the tray. Place 1-2 wire cooling racks on top (however many will fit). Lay the uncooked strips of bacon on the rack over the tray. Slide onto the middle oven rack and bake for about 15 minutes, or until cooked but still pliable & not crispy. You don’t want the bacon crispy for this. Remove from the oven, pat with paper towels to remove most of the grease, then set the bacon aside until needed.

Bacon ready to go into oven and finished bacon:

When the dough has finished rising flour your hand & punch down the dough. Flour a large, flat work surface (I use a silopat mat) scrape the dough out of the bowl and onto the surface. Gently (meaning don't press down hard with the rolling pin!) roll the dough out to a rectangle about 14" x 8" & 3/8" thickness.

Dough ready to roll out:

In a small bowl, stir together the brown sugar & cinnamon until completely mixed. Brush the melted butter onto the dough, covering the top of the dough completely. Sprinkle and gently spread the brown sugar cinnamon mixture all over it.

Next, lay on the strips of bacon parallel to the long sides, in 2 columns (I ended up with 5 rows = 10 pieces of bacon total). Flour your fingers again & gently roll the dough beginning at one of the long ends (this differs from the online recipe but my husband wanted bacon in every bit so we rolled it this way). You'll need to lift it a little as you roll so as not to push the bacon forward (so sort of an up, over, & down roll). Roll it from the edges first, tucking them in a little, and then rolling the center. Once it's all rolled up, pull the end over any bacon poking out & pinch the end and seam closed. Re-flour your surface if needed.

Choose which baking dish you want to use. These rolls are big so only a few can fit in a cake or pie pan together (they will expand during the second rising, so squishing a bunch in together isn't a good idea). I used a large baking dish lined with foil. You can spray your chosen dishes and pans with non-stick spray or butter them, which is what I did.

The recipe online said to use dental floss to cut the roll into segments but I just used a very sharp knife and did it with a gentle sawing motion so as not to crush the bun. (I will put the dental floss instruction at the end of this paragraph in italics if you want to try that method.)

here is the dental floss method: Take a pice of plain dental floss about 18" long & slide/shimmy it under the roll about an inch in & then cross & pull on the ends of the string to slice the dough. If the string is caught on tiny bit of bacon, simply hold the bacon in place with your thumb & forefinger while you pull the string away & it will detach, no problem.

Lift the cut bun segment into one of your prepared dishes, cut side up, & then continue to slice the dough until it's all cut and in the baking dishes. Cover the baking dishes with plastic wrap & let rise for another hour.

Heat your oven to 350ºF. Once the hour time for rising is done bake the rolls for about 20 minutes, or until they are light golden brown.

Remove from oven & let cool for a few minutes.

While the rolls are baking, place the butter for the glaze in a mixing bowl and beat until creamy. Add in the powdered sugar, 2 tablespoons milk, vanilla, and a pinch of salt, & mix until smooth and pourable. Once the rolls are done and slightly cool, drizzle the glaze over them. You can do zig zags or spirals or just dump a glob in the middle of the bun.

These were a RAGING SUCCESS with the family and I have been asked to make these again. Soon.

Hope you enjoy these! They were very good and definitely do justice to Baz’s bacon and cinnamon bun comment! I think Simon would approve!

The house smelled fantastic when they were cooking!

Here is the recipe without the photos:

Ingredients:

Buns:

2 Tbsp. Active Dry Yeast

1/4 Cup Hot Water (but not boiling! I used the microwave to heat it up)

1 Cup Milk (I used lactose free because that’s what we have here)

1/4 Cup Butter, sliced

1/4 Cup Sugar + a pinch more for the yeast

1 tsp. Salt

1 Egg, room temperature

3 1/2 Cups Flour

Filling:

1 pkg. Center Cut Thick Bacon, uncooked (mine was maple flavored but you can use plain)

1/2 Cup Dark Brown Sugar (recipe said 1/2 cup but I added a bit more--like a heaping 1/2 cup instead of flat)

2 tsp. Ground Cinnamon (as with the brown sugar I added another 1/2 tsp)

2 Tbsp. Butter, melted

Glaze:

1 Tbsp. Butter, room temperature/soft

1 Cup Powdered Sugar

2 Tbsp. Milk, warm

1 tsp. Vanilla Extract (recipe on website said 1/2 tsp but we like vanilla flavor so I used a whole tsp)

Pinch of Salt

Method:

Place the yeast into a bowl & add the hot/very warm water and just. a pinch of sugar. Let that sit while you warm up the milk (the yeast needs about 10 minutes to foam up).

Choose which baking dish you want to use. These rolls are big so only a few can fit in a cake or pie pan together (they will expand during the second rising, so squishing a bunch in together isn't a good idea). I used a large foil covered baking dish. You can spray your chosen dishes and pans with non-stick spray or butter them, which is what I did.

Take a pice of plain dental floss about 18" long & slide/shimmy it under the roll about an inch in & then cross & pull on the ends of the string to slice the dough. If the string is caught on tiny bit of bacon, simply hold the bacon in place with your thumb & forefinger while you pull the string away & it will detach, no problem.

Heat your oven to 350ºF. Once the hour time for rising is done bake the rolls for about 20 minutes, or until they are light golden brown.

Remove from oven & let cool for a few minutes.

These were a RAGING SUCCESS with the family and I have been asked to make these again. Soon.

Hope you enjoy these! They were very good and definitely do justice to Baz’s bacon and cinnamon bun comment! I think Simon would approve!

The house smelled fantastic when they were cooking!

#cooking my way through carry on #carry on cooking #the food of Carry On #cinnamon buns #bacon #baz pitch #Simon Snow #bacon cinnamon buns

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tentafurb · 5 years ago

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Hi! Hello! Prompted by a post from @furbdreams a while back, I have taken the opportunity to draft out the body pattern for the 2016 Furby/ Furby Connect! Please keep in mind that working with nasty, frayed fur is very hard, so I have done the best I can to make everything even and representative of my fur pieces. However, some tweaking might be needed depending on how you choose to work on your Furb or inaccuracies from the drafting process.

Happy Furbing! Please let me know if you use this pattern! I’d love to see what gets done with it! Connects need more love!

A couple of points of note below the readmore...

1. The fur over the faceplate was separate, and shaved down ahead of time. It may have been larger, but the edges were rolled up under itself to hide the backing.

2. Plastic clips are used at all points of fur / plastic contact, such as between the eyes, around the faceplate, around the antenna and around the ears. Unless you have painstakingly removed every clip from their slots and have detached them via seam-ripping from the fabric, you will have to choose another way to secure these contact points.

3. There were two pieces of scrap fur on the inside of the face, presumably for shaping. Here, they are represented by rectangles, but I don’t believe them to have any other purpose besides shaping.

4. When the pattern is finished, the bottom edge should be straight across. The belly seam is an inward fold in the fur that functions as an anchor for the tickle sensor/ batting, the seam where the feet are sewn in, as well as where the fabric will tuck under the plastic base plate. (Where you sew in your feet on this line is up to you because I maimed this area in the process of removing them. Oopsie)

5. To help the fur hold itself to the Furby, a line of elastic circled all the way around the bottom edge of the fur. I recommend 5mm or smaller. Do not wind it too tightly, just enough for it to pull all of the puckers under the base plate.

6. The tail material was actually a short-pile fur, with the wrong side of the fabric being presented on the outside. The ribbon attaching the tail pull sensor is tied through the hook, then sewn into the seam between the furry tuft and the tail base.

7. To put the fur over the ears, you will have to make a slightly larger than usual slit to accommodate for their width, then muppet-stitch them back up to a decent size. Unless, of course, you have the willpower to try and safely remove the ears from their pegs.

8. To aid with printing, I have measured out the height from the middle of the neck to the base of the belly to be 6 cm APPROXIMATELY.

#furbtalk #furby #furby connect #furby community #pattern #sewing #diy #crafts #safefurby #furby fandom #oddbody #furblr #allfurby #custom furby #long furby

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ollie-ollie-oxenfreee · 4 years ago

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awkward attempts at parenting: the accompaniment

If I’m going to write about the bonding potential of baking bread, I ought to include a recipe, right? :) I went with a rustic recipe that I think would probably be able to be made with the few supplies that are available - flour, water, yeast, salt, coals from a cooking fire for heating and steam generation.

This is taken from America’s Test Kitchen’s Bread Illustrated, my favorite recipe book. It’s definitely tricky and time - consuming, so be warned, but the results are beautiful.

Pain de campagne

Equipment needed: water - filled spray bottle, large linen towel, 5 - quart colander or bowl (to shape the boule as it proofs), baking stone, 2 (9 inch) disposable aluminum pie plates, 2 quarts lava rocks (used to create steam in the oven and help the bread take shape), pizza peel, sharp knife (for scoring), thermometer

For the sponge:

1 2/3 cups (9 1/8 ounces) bread flour

1 cup (8 ounces) water, room temperature

1/8 teaspoon instant or rapid - rise yeast

For the dough:

1 cup (5 1/2 ounces) bread flour

2/3 cup ( 3 2/3 ounces) whole - wheat flour

1 1/2 teaspoons instant or rapid - rise yeast

3/4 cup (6 ounces) water, room temperature

2 1/2 teaspoon salt

Stir all sponge ingredients in 8 - cup liquid measuring cup with wooden spoon until well - combined. Cover tightly with plastic wrap and let sit at room temperature until sponge has risen and begins to collapse, about 6 hours (sponge can sit at room temperature for up to 24 hours).

Whisk bread flour, whole - wheat flour and yeast together in the bowl of a stand mixer. Stir water into sponge with spoon until well - combined.

Using dough hook on low speed, slowly add sponge mixture to flour mixture and mix until cohesive dough starts to form and no dry flour remains, about 2 minutes. Cover bowl tightly with plastic and let dough rest for 20 minutes.

Add salt to dough and knead on medium - low speed until dough is smooth and elastic and clears side of bowl but sticks to the bottom, about 5 minutes. Transfer dough to lightly greased large bowl or container, cover tightly with plastic and let rise for 30 minutes.

Using greased bowl scraper (or your fingertips), fold dough over itself by gently lifting and folding edge of dough toward middle. Turn bowl 45 degrees and fold dough again; repeat turning bowl and folding dough 6 more times (total of 8 folds). Cover tightly with plastic and let rise for 30 minutes. Repeat folding and rising. Fold dough again, then cover bowl tightly with (you guessed it) plastic and let dough rise until nearly doubled in size, 1 to 1 1/2 hours.

Mist underside of large linen or cotton tea towel with water. Line 5 - quart colander with towel and dust evenly with flour. Transfer dough to lightly floured counter (side of dough that was against bowl should now be against counter). Press and stretch dough into 10 - inch round, deflating any gas pockets larger than 1 inch.

Working around circumference of dough, fold edges toward center until ball forms. Flip dough ball seam side down and, using your cupped hands, drag in small circles on counter until dough feels taut and round and all seams are secured on underside of loaf.

Place loaf seam side up in prepared colander and pinch any remaining seams closed. Loosely fold edges of towel over loaf to enclose, then place colander in large plastic bag. Tie, or fold under, open end of bag to fully enclose. Let rise until leaf increases in size by about half and dough springs back minimally when poked gently with your knuckle, 30 minutes to 1 hour.

One hour before baking, adjust oven racks to lower - middle and lowest positions. Place baking stone on upper rack, place 2 disposable aluminum pie plats filled with 1 quart lava rocks each on lower rack and heat oven to 450 degrees. Bring 1 cup of water to boil.

Remove colander / proofing basket from bag, unfold edges of towel and dust top of loaf with flour. (If any seams have reopened, pinch closed before dusting with flour.) Lay 16 by 12 - inch sheet of parchment paper on top of loaf. Using 1 hand to support parchment and loaf, invert loaf onto parchment and place on counter. Gently remove colander and towel. Transfer parchment with loaf to pizza peel.

Carefully pour 1/2 cup boiling water into 1 disposable pie plate of preheated rocks and close oven door for 1 minute to create steam. Meanwhile, score the loaf by making two 7 - inch - long, 1/2 inch deep slashes with swift, fluid motion along top of loaf to form crust.

Working quickly, slide parchment with loaf onto baking stone and pour remaining 1/2 cup boiling water into second disposable pie plate of preheated rocks. Bake until crust is dark brown and loaf registers 205 to 210 degrees, 45 to 50 minutes, rotating loaf halfway through baking.

Transfer loaf to wire rack, discard parchment and let cool completely, about 3 hours, before serving.

#awkward attempts at parenting: the fic #baking #this is definitely a tough recipe but it's a nice way to spend an afternoon

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roci-by-book · 4 years ago

Text

Nemesis Games [WIP]

“Towers of curved ceramic and steel made great piles, denser than mountains. Hair-thin wire hundreds of kilometers long stood on plastic spools taller than Filip.” (5)

“Filip shuffled down the rows of welding rigs and metal printers. Tubs of steel and ceramic dust fine than talcum. Spiral-core mounts. Layers of Kevlar and foam strike armor piled up like the biggest bed in the solar system.” (5)

“At the emergency ward, he found himself wheeled into an automated surgical bed not that different from the ones on the Rocinante.” (158)

“The passage was the usual design of inflated Mylar and titanium ribs.” (221-222)

“The curve was like the airlock on the Roci, and the design of the latch. Martian design. And more than that, Martian Navy.” (222)

"The bridge looked like the Rocinante's younger brother" (222)

“She pulled herself out of her crash couch and walked out to the common room. It was so much like the Roci’s galley that her brain kept trying to recognize it, failing, and trying again.” (262)

“Magnetic pallets locked to the decks and walls in neat rows. She wondered idly where it had all come from, and what promises had been given in exchange. She went to the nearest, plugged the array into the pallet, and popped it open. The crates unfolded.” (263)

“A toolbox in the machine shop had a bent hasp and, given a few minutes, could be forced open. The Allen wrenches inside would open the access panel on the lift wall between the crew quarters and the airlock, which was where the secondary diagnostic handset for the comm array was stored.” (304)

“While she worked, pressing the plastic into the seams, scraping out whatever had gathered there, doing it again, she tried to fit the new information into the larger scheme of things.” (306)

“When the deck was clean, she dropped the spatula into the recycler, stood, and stretched.” (307)

“In her bunk, her fingers laced behind her neck, she stared up at the blackness on the ceiling. The interface screen at her side was dead.” (311)

“The ship lurched hard, snapping the gimbals of the couches forty-five degrees to the deck.” (329)

“One bulkhead failed to open, reporting vacuum on the other side, and they had to backtrack.” (330)

“The comm array was unable to transmit either broadcast or tightbeam.” (330)

“She popped the straps loose and sat up, pulling her leg away from the needle.” (338)

“In the lift, she selected the machine shop and gripped the handholds as the mechanism dropped her down the body of the ship.” (338)

“The machine shop was empty, all the tools locked in place, but with enough tolerance that when the ship lurched, they all rattled: metal against metal like the ship itself was learning to talk.“ (338)

“She stumbled, her head crashing against the metal shelves.” (339)

“All the wrenches, epoxy welders, voltage meters, and cans of air and lubricant were strapped in place, She flipped through the close-packed layers to a line of Allen wrenches and plucked out the 10 mm.” (339)

“She gathered up a voltage tester, a wiring crimp, and a light-duty soldering iron and stuffed them in her pockets.” (339)

“She killed the lift between the crew quarters and the airlock, bracing herself so that the deceleration didn’t leave her trapped in the middle of empty air.” (340)

“The access panel was fifteen centimeters high and forty wide and opened on the major electrical routing through the center of the ship. If she cut though all the cables there with a welding torch, all the traffic would have rerouted instantly to other channels. Apart from a few warning indicators, nothing would happen.” (340)

“The screws were integral to the plate and didn’t come free, but she felt it when the metal threads lost their grip.” (340)

“Ten. The plate came free. She scooped up the handset, checking its charge. The batteries were nearly full. Connection read good.” (341)

“Channel eighteen was a comm array using the D4/L4 protocols that the Rocinante did for broadcast.” (341)

“Hand over hand, she pulled herself along the shaft and then into the corridors.” (342)

“The narrow corridors of the crew deck seemed too wide.” (344)

“The occasional ticking and popping of the expansion joins adjusting to shifts in temperature were like the knocking of ghosts.”(344)

“He undid the straps on his couch, floating forwards.” (346)

“He stopped at the med bay on the way to his quarters.” (346)

“Fred landed feetfirst on the wall, ankles hooked into the handholds like he’d been born in the Belt.”(348)

““All the bunks are the same,” Holden said. “Except mine. You can’t have mine.”" (349)

“The halls had the same anti-spalling covering that the bridge and the mess had, but marked with location codes and colored strips that would help navigate the ship. One line was deep red with HANGER BAY written in yellow Hindi, English, Bengali, Farsi, and Chinese.” (355)

“Across the corridor from Alex, Prime Minister Smith was huddled behind the lip of a doorway.” (356)

“Another burst of fire sang past, tearing long black strips from the walls and deck and filling the air with the smell of cordite.” (356)

“She drank the same version of chamomile tea that the Rocinante made, and it felt like having a secret ally.” (364)

“The mess was empty, the screens turned off and the crew set away.” (364)

“First drawer: gauze and bandages. Second drawer: one-use blood cards for maybe a hundred different field tests. Third drawer: emergency medical supplies like decompression kits, adrenaline shots, defibrillation tape.” (368)

“The medic had her sit up, the cushion of the medical table crackling under her shifting weight. The analgesic was a spray that went in Naomi’s mouth. It tasted like fake cherry and mold.” (369)

“The cabinet doors were open, spilling test cards and preloaded hypodermics across the floor.” (369)

“She fell to the side, her belly to the deck, decompression kits the size of her thumb pressing into her face as Miral writhed around to kneel on her back.” (369)

“She wanted to say something, but she couldn’t, so she just watched as Karal opened the door then closed it behind him. The lock slid closed.” (371)

“Wet with her saliva and no bigger than her thumb, it was the sort of thing any mech driver kept with her. A tiny ampoule of injectable oxygenated artificial blood and a panic button what would make an emergency medical request for an airlock to cycle.” (371)

“Fred held up the coffee cup. The name TACHI hadn’t quite worn off the side, red and black letters half-erased by use.” (381)

“The crash couch was bolted to the deck with thick steel and reinforced ceramic canted so that any direction the force came from was compression on one leg or another.” (407)

“The drawers were thinner metal, the same gauge, more or less, as the lockers. She pulled them out as far as they would open, examining the construction of the latches, the seams where the metal had been folded, searching for clues or inspiration.” (407)

“The tiny black thumb of the decompression kit, she kept tucked at her waist, ready to go if she could just find a way.” (407)

“The mirror was polished alloy built into the wall. No help there. If she could take apart the vacuum fan in the toilet...” (408)

“A simple EVA suit hung there, suspended in the null g by thin bands of elastic.” (423)

“The indicator went from green to red under her thumb.” (424)

“The airlock door closed behind him, the magnetic seals clacking.” (424)

“The lock was small enough he could put flat palms on both doors.” (424)

“Naomi thumbed the emergency override. Three options appeared: OPEN SHIP DOOR, OPEN OUTER DOOR, RETURN TO CYCLE.” (424)

“Without magnetic boots, she’d have to reach it with bare handholds, but she was close.” (426)

“She plucked the black thumb out of her belt, twisted it to expose the needle, and slammed it into her leg.” (426)

“The airlock indicator on the Chetzemoka’s skin blinked, the emergency response received, the cycle starting.” (426)

“There were handholds on the surface – some where deigned, but others were the protrusions of antennae and cameras.” (427)

“Maneuvering thrusters lit along the warship’s side, an ejection mass of superheated water glowing as it jetted out.” (427)

“And then, Mfume was gone, bolting up the ladder toward the cockpit faster than the lift would have taken him.” (431 - 432)

“Holden tapped in an order for another coffee.” (432)

“Finding Sun-yi and Gor wired into gaming googles shooting the crap out of each other in simulated battles – because as weapons techs with no one to shoot at they were getting antsy – stopped being weird and edged into sort of endearing.” (432)

“The hatch to the cockpit was closed, but Holden could still hear the wailing of the raï that Mfume liked to listen to during his shift in the pilot’s seat.” (433)

“Holden sat on the couch beside Fred’s and leaned in.” (433)

“The first disappointment was that the controls were in lockdown. She tried a few passwords – FreeNavy and Marcoisgreat and Filip – but even if she got it right, there was no reason to expect that they’d left the biometrics profiles turned off.” (448)

“The three EVA suits that remained didn’t have batteries or air bottles. The emergency rations were gone. She expected the toolboxes to be gone from the machine shop, but they’d taken out the racks that held them too, the drawers from the cabinets, the LEDs from the wall lights. The couches were all slit open, gel and padding pooled on the deck beside them. The drug delivery system and reservoirs were gone. The only water was in the drives; ejection mass to be spit out the back of the ship. The only food was the residue in the recyclers that hadn’t been processed back into anything edible. The stink of welding rigs and burning still hang in the air, so the air recycler was probably running unfiltered.” (449)

“The deck shook under her, the vibration of thrust setting up resonances that no system even tried to damp down.” (449)

“There should be a way through the machine shop. All machine shops were supposed to be connected at the back.” (449)

“The EVA suits weren’t powered and didn’t have bottles, but they had seals and reinforcement. She could take the cloth apart, and salvage some lengths of wire. Maybe something solid enough to cut with. And could she use the helmet clamps as a kind of vise grip or clamp?” (450)

“In a real ship, it would all have been protected by conduit. On this piece of crap, the wiring had all been fixed directly to the hall with a layer of yellowed silicone epoxy.” (452)

“Across the space, maybe four meters away, an indicator light went amber, and she was falling sideways. With the extra illumination, she could see the round, tree-thick body of the maneuvering thruster. She put out her arms, catching herself against a steel strut.” (452)

“Three sorties ago -- number forty-four -- she’d thought there might be a diagnostic handset. Not that should could speak into it, but she might have been able to tap out a message. But despite the fact that handsets like that were standard and required, there wasn’t one” (454)

“She scrambled down, moving from strut to strut, watching her hands and feet with every movement so she wouldn’t midjudge.” (455)

“The air in her suit didn’t feel stale or close; the carbon dioxide scrubbers worked well enough on passive that she wouldn’t feel the panic of asphyxiation. She’d just gently pass out and die.” (455)

#nemesis games #the expanse #roci by book

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kingofdirtandnothing · 4 years ago

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@polyfacetious big ass Christmas Drabble Extravagaza: Day Sixteen

Jacob is lounging on the back patio, bare feet over the edge of a generic plastic lawn chair. His jogging pants sit low on his hips, just a hint of stomach visible where his sun faded t-shirt has ridden up, a football team’s logo long lost to the hands of time and the washing machine. The breeze moves softly through his grey hair, and the skin around his closed eyes is well worn with laugh lines.

He’s so beautiful that Din doesn’t know what to do with himself, most of the time.

It seems like a lifetime ago that they were working the same case for different organizations. (Din never liked working with the local cops. They didn’t like having the feds around.) Hard to believe it was only two years ago.

And half a world away. Monte Carlo was a far cry from those long flights from North Carolina to Arizona, just to spend a little time with a man who stole his heart in one fell swoop. Gone were the badges and the long travel times and the sick, twisted men who used to put away.

Now life was a small house with a tiny backyard, a retired husband and a kid that was just learning to walk. And if the kid had his way, Din would be just as grey haired as Jacob by the time the baby gates came down.

Because the kid was utterly, and completely single minded when it came to food. If Din had known what the switch from formula and bottles to baby food would entail, maybe he would have waited a little longer. Because now he had a kid who had gotten his head stuck in the slats of the baby gate twice now, tried to climb it at least once (that he saw) and who would shove any unsupervised food into his mouth the second a head would turn away from him.

No one ever told Din that parenting meant baby oil-ing up a little fat head while it wailed to get it unstuck from between two wooden poles in a baby gate. But then again, no one told him that he would hold a baby in his arms and love it so much that his lifelong ambitions would fall to the wayside to keep him safe.

Or that he’d meet a drawling, playful marshal in the middle of the desert in Arizona and feel his heart come to life, like the Grinch’s. Jacob Vanth made his heart grow three sizes that day, and Din wasn’t afraid to admit it. (Mostly because it would make Jacob laugh if he did. He had a great laugh.)

But life had a funny way of changing when you least expected it, and there’s nothing in the world that would make Din give up this life he had for himself now.

“You’re home early.” Jacob doesn’t open his eyes as he speaks, fingers brushing in idle sweeps against the metal bar at the top of the lounge chair. It’s distracting enough that Din doesn’t think to answer for another few seconds.

“Work was easy today.” Part of giving up the life they left behind was giving up the job. Din couldn’t exactly be a member of the Federal Bureau of Investigation of the United States if he was living overseas. So his clearance was signed away, his severance pitched into the same account as Jacob’s retirement to buy the house here, and then he started looking for work.

Private security consulting was laughably easy. Din didn’t even have to deal with the customers beyond the initial consultation. He was the guy went in, who scoped out the house and the routine and suggested to the company how best to keep the client safe.

It was for the best that way, because Din had no patience for rich men with bloated egos who thought they were above the law because they had money. Hell, he had spent the majority of his career working to put those very men away. If this job meant working under the thumb of an elitist asshole, then Din would have found another job.

But his boss was a good man, a no nonsense kind of man who saw that Din’s use was best in offering information for each of their new jobs. He would lay the groundwork, and then whoever took over to keep the client safe could tailor those recommendations to best serve the client, and the business.

“Let me guess…” Jacob cracks an eye open finally, a playful smirk tugging at the corner of his mouth. Din wanted to kiss it. “You went to some feller’s house, you told him that he had too many windows and not enough cameras, and then he paid your boss an obscene amount for someone to stand around and make him feel safe.”

That was eerily close to the truth, actually. But as Din was learning, if you’d met one 1%-er, you’d met them all. He takes a step out onto the patio, toeing off his freshly shined loafers. Din leans a shoulder against the open sliding door, leg crossed at the knee so that he could pull off his socks, one by one.

The suit he was wearing was tailored, the most obscenely expensive thing that Din owned. He’d learned early in his career that sometimes, the suit was the only armor that a man had when he was out in the field. You had to be able to cut an intimidating figure to those you were questioning, while still radiating comfort and safety to those you were promising to protect, or to avenge their family members.

Next comes his suit coat. Din folds it neatly across the back of the lounge chair opposite Jacob’s. Cuffs are undone, and folded up and over his elbows, one crisp turn at a time. Only then does Din perch himself on the place that Jacob made for him on the side of his lounge chair.

Din was still learning this part. Leaving the job at the door. Before Jacob and the kid, he’d never had any sort of life. He had always marched on with blinders on, no thought in his head but the path to the job. Even in college, he’d abstained from the parties and the drinking and the casual sex. All that mattered was the job.

Now, the job was what mattered least. Now, the job was a means to an end. A way to add to the coffers and help keep their kid in pull ups. And to keep Jacob Vanth in all the threadbare t-shirts his heart desired. (How someone could make something so sloppy look so good was beyond Din. But Jacob did it, and did it well.)

The job was no longer the first thing he thought of in the morning, or the last thing he thought of before bed. Now those thoughts were reserved for what he was going to make their bottomless pit of a kid for breakfast, before work. And the night time thoughts, well...those weren’t the kinds of things a man brought up in polite conversation.

“Something like that.” Din was grateful for the fact that Jacob never seemed to run out of words. Din had never been the most talkative person. His colleagues used to tell him that it was like working with a robot. And then they’d laugh when he took it personal. Robots were creepy and weird. Din was just quiet. There was a big difference there. He felt, and he felt a lot.

Like right now? There was so much love in his chest that Din felt fit to bursting, like an overfull water balloon, aching at the seams with just how much love was inside of him. Din reaches between them, fingers walking along the strips of soft plastic that made up the majority of the lounge chair, until he could brush his pinkie against Jacob’s.

The touch is gentle, skin rasping against sun warmed skin. Jacob had calluses in all the right places, and Din greatly appreciated them when the lights were off and the door was closed. (He was working up to lights on, but it was a long way from Jehovah’s Witness to openly gay man in Monte Carlo. Some steps took longer than others.)

But more than that, the touch is still as electric as that first stolen touch was. Standing next to an old vending machine outside of a squat motel in the Sonaron desert, the case a long forgotten dream in the back of his head. Jacob Vanth had seen through him with extreme prejudice and peeled away the layers with just his eyes.

Din was lost the second Marshal Vanth smiled at him, and there was no turning back.

“How’s the kid?” It was surprisingly quiet in his walk through the house to get to the back porch. There were a pile of plastic frog toys spilling out of a bin in the living room, but the rest of the place was clean. Even the kid’s high chair, which looked like a disaster zone, most hours out of the day.

“Sleepin’. He fought that nap today, boy.” Jacob lets out a low whistle, shaking his head solemnly. His wrist brushes against Din’s knee as he reaches down beside the lounge chair to grab the baby monitor there. A blinking green light on the front guaranteed that it was on. And if Din stayed still enough, he could hear the soft, snuffling breaths on the other end of the line.

“He’s stubborn.” Din agrees quietly. The kid was a survivor, all the way from birth. (Sometimes, Din still had nightmares about finding him in that dumpster, out in the heat. What if he hadn’t stopped to take a breath. What if he hadn’t listened and heard that soft, mewling cry?)

But you’d never know he was a preemie now by looking at him. The kid was walking now, a great trundling waddle, arms always outstretched. And when he caught sight of Din or Cobb after a break of not seeing them, he’d take off as fast as his little fat (Michelin man, that’s what Jacob called them) legs would carry him. It was enough to make Din feel like he was the most important person in the world.

“Like his daddy.” Jacob agrees, using the hook on the back of the baby monitor to hang it off of the edge of the lounge chair again. “But he just went down, maybe ten minutes ago.” Jacob spares only a second to look at his watch before he’s turning those bedroom eyes on Din. He was in trouble. “Which means we got a little time to ourselves.”

As always, fear comes first. A lifetime of being told he was wrong, that he was abhorrent, Din still fears even the gentlest of touches in “public”. Even if public was in the sunshine in their own back yard. But fast on its heels was determination. He wasn’t going to be defined by an outdated rhetoric. Not anymore. Not when his life was so good.

So Din makes a conscious effort to reach between them, to grab Jacob’s callused hand and laces their fingers together in some kind of internal defiance. (He couldn’t truly believe that this was wrong. How could something so pure be wrong? There had to be a mistake in how it was written down. That’s what Din had to keep telling himself. It was some kind of cosmic typo. God couldn’t really hate love like this.)

It earns him a slow as honey smile from Jacob, and that’s worth any amount of fear.

“It looks like we do.” And Din knows exactly what he wants to do with that time. But there was nothing wrong with playing a little hard to get, especially if it got Jacob levering himself up into a sitting positon, and right into Din’s personal space.

“We should spend it wisely.”

#ch: din #polyfacetious | cobb #v: expats row #queued #carlota's christmas drabbles

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dosossos · 5 years ago

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Cinnamon Rolls

STUFF Dough 4 large eggs, room temperature 3/4 cup whole milk, warm (100-110F) 1/4 cup honey 4 cups (568g) all-purpose flour 2 1/4 teaspoon instant yeast 2 teaspoons salt 10 tablespoons (1 1/4 sticks | 142g) unsalted butter, room temperature, cut into 1-inch pieces

Filling 1/2 cup (99g) packed brown sugar 1 tablespoon ground cinnamon Pinch salt 2 tablespoons (29g) unsalted butter, melted and cooled

Icing 8 tablespoons (1 stick | 113g) unsalted butter, room temperature 4 ounces (114g) cream cheese, room temperature 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract 1/4 teaspoon salt 1 cup (113g) confectioners’ sugar

STEPS For the dough Grease a large bowl.

In a large liquid measuring cup, combine the eggs, milk, and honey.

In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with a paddle, mix the flour, yeast, and salt and stir on low to combine. Add the egg mixture and mix on low to combine. With the mixer on low, add the butter, one piece at a time. When all the butter has been added, increase the speed to medium and beat the butter into the dough, until all the little butter pieces are incorporated, 1 minute. Transfer the dough to the prepared bowl. The dough will be very sticky and you will need a spatula to scrape the dough into the bowl.

Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and let rise for 30 minutes. Place your fingers or a spatula underneath the dough and gently pull the dough up and fold it back over itself. Turn the bowl and repeat this folding again. Continue 6 to 8 more times, until all the dough has been folded over on itself. Re-cover the bowl with plastic and let rise for 30 minutes. Repeat this series of folding 3 more times, for a rise time of 2 hours and a total of 4 foldings. Tightly cover the bowl with plastic wrap and refrigerate overnight or up to 72 hours.

To Assemble Flour a work surface and knead the Sweet Dough 10 to 12 times. Shape the dough into a ball, cover the top lightly with flour, and if your dough has been refrigerated, cover with a tea towel and let come to room temperature.

Grease a 9×13-inch pan; if desired, line with parchment paper (this makes for easier cleanup).

In a small bowl, mix the brown sugar, cinnamon, and salt.

Roll the dough into a 16 by 12-inch rectangle. Brush the dough with the melted butter and sprinkle the cinnamon-sugar mixture evenly over the top, pressing it lightly into the butter so it adheres. Starting at a long side, roll the dough into a tight cylinder. Pinch the seam gently to seal it and position the dough seam side down. Use scissors or a sharp knife to cut the dough into 12-equal pieces. Transfer the pieces to the prepared pan and place them cut side up. Cover the pan loosely with plastic wrap and let the dough rise until doubled, 1 to 1 1/2 hours.

Adjust an oven rack to the middle position. Preheat the oven to 350F (180C). Remove the plastic and bake 27 to 32 minutes, rotating the pan halfway through, until the rolls are golden brown. While the rolls are baking, prepare the icing.

Transfer the pan to a wire rack and let cool for 5 minutes. Using an offset spatula or table knife, apply a thin layer of the cream cheese icing, using about one-third of the mixture. Let the rolls cool for another 15 to 20 minutes. Top with the rest of the icing and serve.

For the icing In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with a paddle, beat the butter and cream cheese on medium until smooth and creamy. Add the vanilla and salt and mix on low to combine. Add the confectioners’ sugar and mix on low until combined. Scrape down the sides of the bowl and mix on medium until the icing is light and fluffy, 3 to 4 minutes.

For overnight cinnamon rolls Prepare the rolls (roll out dough, fill them, roll them up, cut them, and put them in the prepared pan, but do not let rise for 1 1/2 hours as stated above) then cover them loosely with plastic and refrigerate for up to 18 hours. When ready to bake, preheat the oven, and let the rolls sit at room temperature (still covered in plastic) for 30-45 minutes. Bake as directed (they make take slightly longer to bake).

NOTES The dough can be cut into 8, 10, or 12 pieces, depending on your preferred size. Add a few minutes to the baking time for larger-size buns.

I like my cinnamon rolls super soft and gooey, so I put a thin layer of the icing over them while they are still very warm. The icing melts into the warm rolls, eliminating any hard corners or edges. If you prefer a little crispy crunch to your cinnamon rolls, you can wait until they have cooled and then top them with all the icing. And if you need to eat them warm, go ahead and smother them with all the icing right from the oven.

You don’t have to use a 9 x 13-inch baking pan here; you can get creative if you’d like. I often use this round 10-inch pan for baking the cinnamon rolls or this 5 quart braiser. You could also bake them on a half sheet pan lined with parchment.

#Cinnamon Rolls #winter #dessert #breakfast #good for groups #cream cheese #frosting #instant yeast #food #recipes #holiday

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notbang · 5 years ago

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an art or a science

A scene’s worth of deviation from 3x03 - aka AU where Rebecca doesn’t stand Nathaniel up, and Nathaniel takes something Rebecca said in 3x02 to heart.

read on AO3

“Well, we’re here. Are you happy now? Nobody’s blowing anybody off, fly or otherwise. I’ll go up, I’ll sample his spaghetti sauce, and we’ll call it a day.”

Rebecca shuts off the ignition, feeling oddly defensive. It’s only eight thirteen—barely pushing the limits of her track record with punctuality, really.

All she gets is a grunt in return, followed by a snide, “That doesn’t sound very appeasing if you ask me.”

“Maybe if you had a better appreciation of figurative language, it would.” Caving under the glare she receives, she rolls her eyes and concedes. “Fine. We go in, we go out, we maybe engage in some heavy petting in lieu of dessert. I’m talking strictly hand stuff only. One hour, tops.” She casts a glance towards the unimpressed preteen currently sinking down, cross-armed in the passenger seat and purses her lips. “Forget I said any of that. Cover your ears. Wash your mouth out with soap.”

“Why am I the one getting her mouth washed out?”

Rebecca sighs, throwing her hands up as she tips her head back against the seat in thinly veiled exasperation. “I don’t know—because then you’ll be too busy pulling funny faces and gagging at the gross taste to repeat any of what you just heard. Now, can I leave you in here unattended? Do I need to crack a window?”

“You seriously think locking me in the car is going to keep your anxiety at bay?”

“Well, I figure in the very least it’ll give me some kind of a head start. Can’t hurt a girl to try, right?”

Reaching into the back seat to retrieve the haphazardly folded shirt she’d tossed in there on the drive over, Rebecca gives herself a quick once-over in the rearview before reluctantly making her way towards the lobby of Nathaniel’s building.

It takes him longer to answer her knock than she’s expecting, and in the extra stretch of seconds she nearly convinces herself she’s waited long enough to justify leaving. Before she can redirect her inexplicable nervous energy from fidgeting into fleeing, though, the door swings open to reveal Nathaniel, shirtsleeves rolled up to his elbows, and despite having seen him naked only a few nights before she finds herself strangely captivated by this new business-casual bare expanse of exposed forearms.

“Rebecca,” he says, and she thinks it sounds like he’s sighing it in relief, almost. Like he hadn’t expected her to show.

“Hi. I, uh… this is yours.” She fingers one of the gunmetal buttons on his dress shirt before thrusting it it towards him.

“Oh. Thank you.”

His gaze flits up from the white bundle in his hands to sashay up the length of her, and she can see it written across his features that he’s remembering what it looked like wrapped around her instead.

Neck flushing hot, she hikes her purse further up onto her shoulder and clears her throat. “Look, Nathaniel. The other night was fun, and I appreciate you helping me out, but I’ve got a lot going on right now, and I just really think we should avoid making this into something it’s—sorry, what is all this?”

It occurs to her, somewhat belatedly, that his previously tending-towards-Spartan apartment is suddenly overrun with what appears to be stacks of shipping crates. Beyond the rows of boxes, in front of his black leather sofa, she can just make out a small wooden table that wasn’t there before either, unmistakably candlelit and set for two.

Nathaniel examines his nail beds, exuding exaggerated nonchalance. “Hm? Oh, these? Video games.”

Tearing her gaze away from the surprisingly feminine floral centrepiece—did he pick that out himself? she wonders—she blinks at him, still in need of further elucidation. “Video games,” she repeats.

“Mm-hmm.”

“You—Productivity Plimpton the third—play video games,” she says, dubiously, before narrowing her eyes into a suspicious squint. “Do you even own a TV?”

He tilts his head, his expression both guarded and curious, as if confused by her own confusion. “They’re not for me,” he says slowly.

While some spiralling-out-of-control part of her is still desperate to say her piece and leave, she’s nothing if not easily distracted; if Nathaniel’s being deliberately obtuse she’s willingly falling for it, hook, line and frustrated sinker.

“Okay, I’ll bite. What, then? You doing all your company Christmas shopping in one hit? I’ll just stick to a good old fashioned bonus, but thanks anyway, I guess?”

Nathaniel barks out a mocking laugh. “I’m not sure what exactly about disappearing for two weeks of unapproved leave preceded by what was already months of questionable workplace attendance makes you think you’re eligible for a bonus of any description, but no.”

“Uh, maybe the tens of thousands of dollars that I make for the firm every month with my eyes closed,” she lobbies back, making sure to tack on a performative eye-roll for good measure.

“Hmm. Which might be commendable, were it not for the strictly eyes-open policy I had put in place upon my arrival.”

It’s shifting dangerously close to too-familiar territory, their barbed back and forth, and in a desperate effort to reclaim some unspoken upper ground she’s in the middle of rehashing her potential excuses with which to blow him off when he continues on, unprompted.

“I called in a favour with an old law school buddy of mine who convinced a client of his to file a lawsuit against the studio of Josh’s favourite franchise, Sins of the Fleshless, for copyright infringement. The servers for the online multiplayer have been suspended and the upcoming release of the next instalment is indefinitely delayed.”

Hearing Josh’s name sends an involuntary jerk through her, incomprehension creeping with dread. “I don’t understand,” she says.

“Zomber Stomper II: the Quick and the Dead proved more of a challenge, since it’s already hit the shelves, but I was able to pull some strings and secure every physical copy on the West Coast. George should be finishing up at a Buy More in Burbank as we speak.”

It’s his tone, more than anything, that eventually sparks recognition—taking her back to being sprawled out alongside him in his bed, in the very shirt she’d just returned to him, legs tangled together as he recounted their villainous exploits for her with a seductive drawl.

She raises her eyebrows, finally catching on and, frankly, caught more than a little off-guard. “Wow. That’s…”

“Evil?” he offers, stuffing his hands into his pockets and leaning back to perch on the arm of his couch.

“Yeah,” she says with a surprised laugh. “Yeah, kinda.”

It is the perfect crime, in a way—sure, it doesn’t humiliate Josh or force him to reckon with the ways he’s wronged her, but it’s deliciously petty whilst being simultaneously harmless and doesn’t make her feel how she felt watching Josh’s friends turn on him in the face of her lies. Doesn’t make her feel like an infectious black disease, swallowing and rotting everything she touches.

“Why, though? You already held up your end of the deal. I wasn’t expecting…”

For a brief moment, something flinches across his face, so quick she almost doesn’t catch it. As it is, she doesn’t want to interrogate what it might mean. Doesn’t have it in her. Not now.

Nathaniel nods. “Because you were right.”

“I was? About what?”

“I think we can both agree that my original plan was… excessive,” he decides on, suddenly intent on picking at some invisible lint on his slacks. “I wasn’t thinking clearly, and I got carried away.”

Her voice goes soft and small, heady with the memory of his words at the masquerade. “Because you were busy thinking about me?”

“I thought that much was obvious. I was trying to… impress you, I suppose?” he admits with obvious chagrin. He clears his throat. “But you didn’t like my plan, so I regrouped, and went with yours.”

“Oh,” she says, for lack of anything else, and lets them sit with that for a second before she goes on to ask, “What are you going to do with all this stuff?”

He shrugs, seemingly unconcerned. “I’m certainly open to suggestions.”

She thinks back to the aftermath of Jayma’s wedding, of Josh sleeping on her couch and eating her food and playing Playstation and giving her nothing, just like their wedding day, and it helps her turn her anger at him back into something tangible and real.

“Can I break one?” she blurts out after a moment. Off Nathaniel’s confused look she elaborates, “I’ve kind of just always wanted to take one of those shiny discs and like… snap ‘em right in half, y’know?”

Wryness twisting at his mouth, he makes a be my guest gesture towards the closest pile.

Unearthing a case from the nest of shredded cardboard, she traces her fingernails along the seam of the shrink plastic seal until they snag and rip, giving way with a gratifying tear. It takes more force than expected to pop open, setting the disc loose at the same time when it finally gives way, for a split second worrying her that she’s scratched it. The irony of her concern catches up with her as she slides it out, setting the case back down on top of the others.

DEAD END is emblazoned across the front in a dripping, slimy font.

All too aware of Nathaniel’s gaze on her, she winces as she applies pressure to the edges, sucking in a breath when it succumbs, yielding to the torsion with a fulfilling crack.

“Oh,” she says, quietly. “That felt good. Satisfying, even.”

She doesn’t think she’s imagining it, the way Nathaniel’s eyes soften, and the corners of his mouth uptick the tiniest, most tentative amount.

Despite the absurdity inherently obvious to her even as she’s doing it, she carefully places the two pieces back inside the case, upside down, so she can regard the obfuscation of her reflection in the shards.

“Want to do it again?” Nathaniel offers. “I think I have some spares.”

A laugh bursts out of her at that, too loud and too hollow. She swallows it back inside, worried that if she lets too much of what she’s feeling out unchecked she won’t be able to stop herself unravelling with it as it goes.

She wishes all the discs could fuse together to create one giant disc that she could hack at with the rugged blade of her emotions—to shatter it into the million shards she feels like she’s currently comprised of. Wishes she could set them all on fire and watch her mirror image burn.

Instead, she squeezes an arm around herself and swallows, feeling suddenly faint. “You did all this knowing Josh was at a convent? Where he probably doesn’t even have wifi, let alone access to an Xbox?”

“Actually, Josh’s preferred platform is Playstation,” Nathaniel says, lips twitching; oblivious, smug. “I did my research. And he’s back in town, right? As of today? I assumed you knew.”

Rebecca stiffens. Of course she knew that—but how did Nathaniel know that? And how much research, exactly, had he done? Did he know everything?

“I put a Google alert on Josh’s social media accounts,” he explains, ignorant to her alarm. “He tweeted someone named smootharmedsurfer89 on the drive home, telling him to make sure his controller was charged. I’ll have you know, I’m very thorough.” He pauses to look her in the eye, voice dripping with deliberation when he adds, “Besides, I’m always more than prepared to play the long con if need be.”

His words curl around her, warm and wanting, and she has to bite her tongue against assuring him she knows exactly just how thorough he can be.

It had been fun, playing secret mission with him, or as fun as she was currently capable of having, all things considered. She’s been preoccupied all week, but now her skin hums with the memory of a very specific kind of preoccupation, so difficult to push away standing in the middle of an apartment that’s so distractingly bed.

The scent of something garlic and tomato-y wafts out from the kitchen, then, and her stomach gurgles its approval, the sound loud and unflattering in the small space. Too agitated to be appropriately mortified, she presses an absent palm against her belly, dully registering hunger below the gaping chasm of panic that’s been ripping steadily open inside of her since she confronted Josh at the church. She realises she can’t remember the last time she ate.

Nathaniel must hear it because he rushes to pull a chair back for her at the table, suavity suddenly all but gone, his movements uncharacteristically clumsy and embarrassingly eager to the point it reminds her of herself so much it hurts, almost, to look at him.

In spite of herself, she’s seconds away from giving in when her phone chirrups and vibrates in her hand, and the warm, glowy feeling that had been creeping over her vanishes, leaving a renewed spike of panic in its wake.

“I’m sorry,” she says, scrunching her eyes shut against the onslaught of accompanying nausea. “I have to go.”

“But you just got here,” he protests, frowning. “Dinner’s almost—”

She’s already backing away, forgetting about the boxes lining the entranceway and toppling a stack of them, upending the cases on the floor. One of them crunches under her heel, clear plastic cracking, and she grabs onto the wall to right herself when she wobbles, waving her phone at him as if to ward him away when he steps forward to help her. “Shit. Sorry. I’m so sorry. I just… I just remembered I kind of left a small child in my car, and there’s this message from Paula, and I can’t do this now, and I just have to go. I really do. Dinner smells amazing and you are being… disconcertingly nice to me? And… I’ll call you, text you, shoot you an email, or something, because I have to—I have to go.”

Fumbling with the lock, she doesn’t even spare a glance for her younger self, sent tumbling backwards from her precarious position, skulking outside with an ear pressed to the door. Ignoring Nathaniel’s confused attempts to call her back she takes the stairs two at a time, already unsteady on her feet and nearly breaking her neck several times in the process.

She texts Paula from the car.

Any updates on the case? Asking for an over-invested friend.

She frowns at the reflection of Nathaniel’s apartment building in the rearview as she pulls away.

#crazy ex girlfriend #rebecca x nathaniel #my fic #written because every time tumblr user catty-words and i watch 3x02 #whenever nathaniel says to destroy a man you have to go after what he loves most #and rebecca says VIDEO GAMES #notbang says 'AU where nathaniel takes down the video game industry'#and cori mentioning this the other day sent me writing this on a whim instead of finishing any of my multiple wips #another joke i make every time that i also wanted to incorporate but couldn't make work:#following george's advice nathaniel has sex with rebecca and LEAVES except. like. it's his apartment.#so it's absurd #and george is hiding in the bathroom in his butler outfit #whether a fic gets its own post or i add it to my oneshot collection is based entirely on exactly nothing and changes with the weather

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jmtanzella · 5 years ago

Text

Recipe: The French Baguette

February 18, 2020

In this recipe we use the “autolyse method,” which will make the dough more workable as it allows the gluten in the flour to absorb more water and become more supple. Many bakers say it also gives it a better tasting, fluffier baguette.

Ingredients (Make 4-6 medium sized baguettes):

500g All-Purpose flour* (4 cups)

330g Water (1⅓ cup + 2 tbsp)

10g Fine salt (½ tbsp)

10g Fresh Live Yeast** (about 2 tsp)

*The flour used in France for baguettes is “French Tradition” T65 flour. It isn’t widely available in the US, so All-Purpose flour should be used instead. If you do have access to fancy flours, you should definitely get your hands on some T65 and bake baguettes with it!

**If using active dry yeast, use at 50% of the weight of fresh yeast. If using instant dry yeast, use 40% of the weight of fresh yeast. For this recipe you can use 1 tsp of dry yeast.

Ideal Set-Up:

Pizza stone on middle rack of oven

Cast iron skillet or large pan on the bottom rack of oven

Instructions:

Measure out water making sure it’s warm / room temp and not cold

Sift flour into the bowl of a stand mixer and add water. Knead the flour and water together for 2 minutes on low speed (Min-1). After 2 mins, the dough will be “shaggy,” meaning it’s a little lumpy and sticky, but there are no pockets of dry flour. It’s all mixed together, but don’t expect it to be smooth

Keep the shaggy dough in the beater bowl and cover the top of the bowl with plastic film. Let dough rest for 45 minutes at room temperature

After 45 mins, add the salt and yeast, and knead for 5 minutes on low speed, then for 7 minutes on medium speed. Remember to scrape down the sides of the bowl so all flour and ingredients are well incorporated

The dough should be smoother now. Shape the dough into a large ball (yes, it will still be sticky), and keep the dough in the mixer bowl. Cover the bowl with plastic wrap again and let rise for 1 hour at room temp. Once during that hour, “knock the dough back” by gently pressing your fingers into the dough to push out the air bubbles

During this hour, set-up and heavily flour your “couche” if you have one. If you don’t have one, you can create your own by heavily flouring several stiff dish towel and creating ridges which will keep the dough snug and in its desired shape while rising

At the end of the hour, flour hands and remove the risen dough ball from the bowl. Ensure all air bubbles are out of the dough by knocking it back one final time

Weigh the dough out into 60g pieces

Fold and shape the pieces into rounded rectangles by first flattening the dough to a oval, then folding the top edge to the center line, the bottom edge up to the same center line and sealing by pressing with our fingertips on the inner seam. Rotate 180° and repeat a few more times to elongate the dough

Place seam side down onto the couche or homemade couche and let rest for 15-30 mins

After the resting period, reflour your hands and the workspace and begin shaping the baguettes. Repeat the folding and elongating process a few more times.

Finally, with the seam side down, cup your fingers and gently roll the dough into a log. Start with your hands in the middle and gradually move them to the outer edge of the baguette as you roll to create the tapered, pointy ends. Roll them out an inch longer than you’d like, about 13,″ to account for shrinkage

Place shaped baguettes with the seam facing down back onto the couche or a lightly greased parchment lined baking sheet. Cover with the other side of the couche, or another dish towel, or a sheet of lightly grease parchment paper

Allow to proof for 45 minutes to 1hr. Afterwards, they should look less dense and more marshmellow-y

Place pizza stone on middle rack and empty cast iron skillet on bottom rack of oven. Preheat to 480°F

Gently transfer proofed baguettes from couche onto to a clean parchment paper to cook on the pizza stone, or keep on the parchment lined baking sheet if you don’t have a pizza stone

Score the top of the dough with a razor or sharp knife by cutting 3-4 diagonal cuts across the top of the baguettes

Next, load the baguettes into the oven. If you’re baking on a pizza stone, use a baker’s peel to transfer the baguettes, parchment and all, onto the hot stone. If you are using a parchment lined tray, place into the oven on a rack above the cast iron skillet

Before closing the oven door, immediately, but carefully, pour water from a pitcher into the hot cast iron skillet and close the oven door to capture the steam inside. This will create the perfect crisp on the outside of the baguette

Bake for 18-24 minutes until golden brown

Remove from the stone by pulling the parchment paper with the baguettes on top onto a baking tray

Let cool on a rack for a bit, and enjoy while warm!

#baking #recipes #homemade #french #pastry

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bubmyg · 6 years ago

Note

Can u write about being out with them all but you’re not having that great of a day so yoongi silently does little things to help cheer you up or just know he’s there for you until he eventually sneaks y’all away so he can just comfort you uwu

genre/warnings: college!au,part of the “ps i love you” series linked on my masterlist, scarce on dialog but heavy on the fluff

word count: 1,958

Yoongi’s attention perked at the sound of your name leaving Taehyung’s mouth, line of sight traveling from his unaware friend to your rigid profile. You smiled none the less, a tight lipped number, barely edging an indentation into the skin of your cheek, acknowledging his call to you.

“You had an exam today, right?” The ice in Taehyung’s glass audibly clattered against the sides as he gripped and stirred his plastic straw within. He paused, long enough to cock an eyebrow, “How’d it go?”

Your breath caught, spine freezing, but you covered it, that same, not quite there, smile pressing at the seam of your lips. You shrugged, “It’s over now, at least.”

Yoongi didn’t catch Taehyung’s head bowing in acknowledgement because he was already gripping the underside of his chair to scoot closer to you. Your attention turned to him, one eyebrow quirking, your inquisitive smile one step closer to genuine.

But you couldn’t fool Yoongi.

He just shook his head, turning back for the table. He retrieved his untouched dinner roll from where Seokjin had tossed and successfully landed it on the edge of the miniature plate. Nimble fingers worked the dough apart, tearing a sizable piece to stretch toward you, dropping the latter half back to the dish. When you reached for the bread, Yoongi retracted his hand, chin curt in shaking once more, bangs fluttering over accusing eyes.

His free hand lifted, tapping his bottom lip with the flat of his index and middle finger, stretching the bread towards you once more. You rolled your eyes, another good sign, one that plastered a toothless smile on his face. Your mouth parted slightly, just enough for his thumb to nudge the bite past your lips, the same digit swiping at the corner of your mouth on the descend, clearing it of flaked crumbs that clung there.

He leaned, shoulder brushing against yours, voice soft against your cheek, “Good?”

You nodded, gaze ducking to your lap the longer attentive eyes swept across your features, tongue curling around the underside of your molars for more than just ridding them of the remnants of sticky yeast.

Yoongi pecked your cheek before twisting for his plate, “Do you want the other half?”

“Not right now. Thank you.”

The slide of his eyes down to your fiddling hands at the hem of your sweater ripped away when Hoseok called his name, drawing him into the conversation with Namjoon. He barely registered their complaints about one of their shared professors, one they’d all have next semester as well, throwing in soft hums and yeah’s of acknowledgement when needed. His attention instead drew to sliding a hand over your thigh, thumb and fingers working together to give a comforting squeeze over the denim.

Conversation lulled longer than he expected, so much so that he purposefully drew himself away when Jeongguk joined, chin cocking to glance at you. You sat in the same position, curled into yourself, fingers pinching and pulling at colored threads poking out knit wool. His hand on your thigh traveled upward, brushing at your wrists until your fiddling paused, eyes crinkling and pinning on him in confusion once more.

The dim lighting in the restaurant snagged into the intricate engravings decorating the various rings pushed across delicate knuckles, sliding off the links of Yoongi’s bracelet where it hung loosely over his protruding wrist bone. He nodded to his hand, the wiggling of his fingers intensifying, inviting you to do the thing you always grappled for anyway.

You hesitated even in his blatant insistence, fingers falling away from your sweater to cradle his palm, gently tracing over the planes of his skin. His wrist went limp, splaying his hand across the middle of your thighs for your liking. He only turned with a satisfied smile when he felt the first twist of the ring on his index finger.

You were on the fifth link of his bracelet when the food arrived, attention not deriving from pressing the pendant against the blue veins crossing up the underside of his wrist even when the waiter slid your plate in front of you, simply muttering out a barely there thank you.

Yoongi’s finger flexed upward toward yours, kissing the heat away from your cheek when you startled. “I need my hand,” He teased, eyes flicking for the steak slab on his plate. His lips touched your skin again, closer to the corner of your mouth, “and you need to eat.”

A sigh swallowed in the back of your throat when you turned, gaze centering into his. His heart ached when you forced another smile at his lingering apprehension, trying to reassure him. He was quick to reciprocate that.

“We’ll go soon,” Yoongi promised. His hand left your lap, thumb and index finger pinching your chin to center a chaste kiss over the wobble of your bottom lip, “Now eat before I have to defend your fries from Jeongguk.”

The shards of fried potatoes were the only things you ate, nibbling on the centers, dropping the burnt edges in a neat pile at the corner of your plate. Your salad looked sad, the cooked pieces of chicken oozed over with the dressing that never got mixed onto weeping lettuce. You nudged tomatoes about with the pronged edge of your fork, separating them from the croutons so that you could drag a particularly large piece of red cabbage over the squares of bread like a lasso.

You dropped your fork, sucking in a sharp breath through your nose. Your fingertips never quite made it into the threads at the hem of your sweater as Yoongi was thrusting his keys into your hands, irises gentle when you parted your mouth to protest.

“Go warm the car up for us,” He encouraged, napkin dabbing at his lips, “I’ll be there in a second.”

“We don’t have to leave yet—”

Plastic stoppers on the bottom of his chair only heightened the sound elicited when he slid backward. He twisted, easily gathering his jacket as he stood. Your mouth was still parted when he stretched the fabric, dropping it easily across your shoulders.

Yoongi crouched, cupped palms securing the jacket around your stature as warm hands rested on your ribs, words curling over the shell of your ear.

“It’s okay, angel.“

You disappeared in a flutter of black as Yoongi dropped back into his chair. The chatter between the others had slowed, curious gazes flicking in his direction. He addressed Jimin, his silver haired roomate the only one to fully meet his gaze, eyebrows knit in concern.

Yoongi passed over a crisp set of bills, hand on the back of Jimin’s chair to hush, “This is enough for our meals and for fresh food. Bring them something home, please?”

Jimin nodded, crumbling and shoving the bills into his front pocket. “Of course, hyung,” His eyes trained on Yoongi as his attention lifted to bid goodbye to the others, “Is everything okay?”

His silent wave sated the others as he stood, nod gradual at Jimin’s inquiry. The corner of his nose wrinkled, “Yeah. Bad day, you know?”

No, Jimin’s smile grew fondly across his lips, I couldn’t tell. He’d barely parted his mouth for an affirming yeah when Yoongi was speaking again, hand gripped hard into the back of his chair, chin cast over his shoulder almost frantic.

“Do you care if they stay over tonight?”

Jimin couldn’t have spoke any faster, speaking for the other five occupants of their house with wholesome sincerity, “Of course not, hyung.”

Yoongi found you curled in the passenger seat of his car, cool air barely rolled over to heat where you blasted it front the vents. His jacket lay across your front like a blanket, nose pressed into the soft collar, eyes trained forward on the dusty lines of his dashboard.

He didn’t speak until after he’d secured his seat belt with a deafening click. You’d turned the radio off completely.

“Ready?”

When you hummed, he flicked on his lights and tugged at the gear shift, pulling out of the diner’s parking lot. The drive back to campus was short and he’d barely navigated onto his street when you were mumbling from underneath your tiny shelter, “Can we go back to yours?”

The last time he saw your apartment, it was covered in notes and highlighters and empty coffee cups and your favorite hoodie you’d stained in ink and coffee from said empty coffee cups. All reminders of your aching heart, all the way down to your broken umbrella and sopping wet socks curled off the edge of your hamper.

Yoongi turned into their driveway, flicking off the lights when they illuminated the back of Taehyung’s car angled awkwardly beside Namjoon’s. “One step ahead of you, love,” He grunted as he shoved open the door, quick in waddling around to your side. He opted for wrapping an arm around your waist, lips against your temple, “I’ll text the guys and ask them to be quiet when they get back.”

“It’s okay,” You mumbled, cheek against his shoulder as he maneuvered you inside, “Can’t hear them from up in your room anyway.”

He got you up into his room on the third story, into one of his hoodies, and tucked under his sheets. He was halfway through folding your jeans, leaving them in a neat pile on top of his desk when you were calling his name.

“They were going out after dinner, right?” You squinted up at him when he sunk a knee into the side of the mattress, “You can go with them. I’m fine here.”

Yoongi couldn’t stop the roll of his eyes, palm nudging over the you sized bump in his duvet.

“Scoot over.”

You obliged, limp in allowing him to wrap himself around you, lifting and tucking the blankets into your awaiting hands underneath your chin. His lips sponged against the base of your neck, fingers twining inside the pocket of your hoodie.

“First of all, they’re going to the frats,” His mouth traveled around the side of your neck to nudge his nose against your cheek, “Second of all, you think I’d leave you alone? In my bed?”

“But if you want to go—”

“I don’t.”

“Okay.”

It was silent until your stature twitched in Yoongi’s embrace, the softest gasp parting your lips.

“Sorry.”

Yoongi’s palms spread against your naval, feeling it jump and twitch with the rise of your shoulders. He frowned, turning you to your back to hover over you. “Sorry for what?” He demanded quietly, tracking a single tear where it squeezed down the contour of your nose.

You shrugged, squinting up at him in an unwarranted haze, “For being the worst.”

He lowered himself to you, pausing his descend a breath above your lips. “Say that again and I’ll make you get up when Taehyung inevitably drags himself into the wrong room later.”

“Yoongi,” You hiccuped, “I’m serious.”

“Angel. So am I.”

The tears fell all while he shifted you again, shoulders pressing into the pillows to pull you across his chest. Warm palms curled into your cheeks, brushing each droplet as it spilled, patient with you as you eventually shifted higher across his torso to bury your face into his neck.

“I love you,” Yoongi’s cheek pressed against your forehead, grip on your waist tightening, “we’ll try again tomorrow, yeah?”

You sniffled, “Yeah.”

He shifted enough to tuck his free arm behind his head, thumb on your hip tracking methodical patterns at the skin there, musing, “You know, they say the sun will come out tomorrow as well.”

“Don’t—”

“Rumor has it I’ll love you then, too,” Yoongi grinned when you hid further into him with a mewled whine, “Tomorrow, that is.”

“No.”

#min yoongi #bts #bts reactions #bts scenarios #yoongi scenario #yoongi scenarios #min yoongi scenario #bts imagine #yoongi imagine #min yoongi imagine #yoongi x reader #bts x reader #i had to just end it bc i was gonna keep going forever obviously jafkdjsafk #selcaboysmain #fic: best friend myg

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vegankinfoods · 6 years ago

Photo

Vegan Char Siu Bao (Baked Buns)

For the char siu bao dough

1 cup warm water, separated in two 1/2 cup portions

1 teaspoon active dry yeast

3 cups all purpose flour or bread flour, divided

¼ cup coconut oil

½ teaspoon vital wheat gluten (can be eliminated if using bread flour)

½ cup sugar

Pinch of salt

For the vegan bao filling

2 tablespoons oil

1 medium onion, diced

1 block extra firm tofu (drained, pat dry and cut into ½-inch cubes)

2 ½ tablespoons soy sauce

½ teaspoon dark soy sauce (optional)

1 tablespoon sugar

1/2 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon sesame oil

1 tablespoon hoisin sauce

white pepper, to taste

1 ¼ cups water or vegetable stock

2 tablespoons flour

Sugar water to coat the buns

1 tablespoon sugar

2 tablespoons warm water

Start by making the dough. Add ½ cup warm water, 1 teaspoon active dry yeast and ⅓ cup flour to a large bowl, and mix well. Set aside in a warm place for 15 minutes until the mixture foams up.

Mix the coconut oil into the foamy yeast mixture until you can’t see any solids and then mix in the remaining ½ cup of warm water. Add the last 2⅔ cups flour, vital wheat gluten, sugar, and salt. Mix in until a dough forms. Knead for 10 minutes. You can add some flour to make it easier to work with, but don't worry if it's a bit sticky. Cover with plastic wrap and let it proof for 1 hour.

While that's happening, make the filling. Heat your wok or cast iron pan over medium-high heat and add the oil, onions and tofu. Cook for 3-5 minutes until one side of the tofu is just browned. Turn the mixture over with a rubber spatula and brown the other side. Feel free to add more oil if the mixture looks a bit dry.

Add the soy sauces, sugar, salt, sesame oil, hoisin sauce, and white pepper. Stir everything together and then add the water/vegetable stock and flour. Stir gently so as not to break up the tofu chunks.

Let the mixture simmer until the liquid thickens into a sauce. It should thicken further as it cools. Set the mixture aside to cool completely before making the buns. If the mixture looks a little wet, you can put it in the fridge to solidify it for easier assembly.

Once the dough has proofed for an hour, turn it out onto a well-floured surface and knead for another 2-3 minutes to ensure most of the air bubbles are gone. Add just enough flour so you can knead it, but be careful not to dry out the dough. Divide the dough into 10 equal pieces and cover with a damp towel.

Roll out each dough ball into a disc, where the middle of the disc is a bit thicker than the sides. Put about 2 tablespoons of filling in the center and fold up the edges to close the bun. The dough is fairly elastic, so you can stretch it to cover the filling if needed. Check out our other char siu bao recipe for more photos on bun folding, Chinese BBQ Pork Buns (Cha Siu Bao. Be sure to pinch it closed, and place it seam side down on a parchment-lined baking sheet.

Keep all the dough balls and the finished buns covered with damp towels until they're all assembled. Let the buns sit for another 10 minutes while you preheat your oven to 375 degrees.

Mix together the sugar and warm water and brush the mixture onto the buns. Place the buns in the oven and immediately turn the temperature down to 350 degrees. Bake for 20-25 minutes, until golden. Brush the buns with the remaining sugar water when they come out of the oven. Serve warm!

#vegan #caninekin #felinekin #deitykin #elfkin

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sockdreams · 7 years ago

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DIY: Spray Dye!

We've posted bunches of DIYs on dyeing your socks before, it's one of the most fun and easy ways to customize your sock drawer. But, we recently encountered a different way to dye, one that reminds us more of bleach stamping, thanks to it's stencil-ability: spray dye! It's way easier than vat or pot dyeing and super fun, so let's learn how to spray that dye!

Because we wanted to show the full range of possibility, I tried several different techniques: spraying on dry, spraying on damp, spraying on wet, and using smoothly textured stockings. What I learned is that there's a world of ways to mix and match techniques, so if you're interested in using spray dye, get ready to experiment! It's very fun but you'll want to test things out before working on that dream project. Luckily, I've tested some things for you, so you can go into your spray dye session with confidence!

First, here's what you'll need:

A work surface covered with newspaper (and I recommend laying down a plastic trash bag or something, THEN newspaper, for minimum mess). Be sure to really cover everything, you don't want any stray spray spattering things unwanted!

Simple designs to use as stencils. I used some printed-out clip art shapes—here's the sheet I used.

If your designs are on regular printer paper, you'll also want a sturdier piece of card, because it's gonna get soggy quick.

A craft blade to cut out your shapes and something safe to cut on.

Your spray dye, I'm using SEI Tumble Dye, picked up at a local craft store. Other dyes can be diluted and put into spray bottles as well, you'll want to read instructions on the dyes you use for best water-to-dye ratios.

Socks to dye! For science, I'm using a wide range: Extraordinary Thigh Highs, O Basics, Midcalf Woolies and the Opaque Nylon Stockings

Not shown: a place to lay out the socks to dry

Optional: a spray bottle of water

Optional: cardboard to put in the socks for less bleed-through

These spray dyes are pretty neat. I picked up a range of options, they were all under $5 each: two plain colours (Mint and Turquoise), two glitters (Silver and Gold) and a glow in the dark. The instructions are very clear on the packaging, you basically shake before using, spray and dye. They do also say "no gloves needed" but my fingertips ended up getting a bit dyed, so unless you're incredibly neat and way better at spritzing than I am, you may want gloves.

Spray dye on dry socks

I'll start with some Extraordinary Thigh Highs. To prevent excess bleed-through, I cut up an old shipping box into one long strip and slid the sock I was working on over it. It's a little tricky, but if you gather the sock up like you're putting it on a leg, you'll be good.

I cut out my stencil shapes, saving the cut out part to use as a reverse stencil. Simple shapes are good, both in making them easier to cut out and so the edges of the shape aren't lost from the texture of the sock or the dye bleeding.

Time to spray! The bottles were pretty easy to use, but some of the various types had a more stubborn spritzer. I found using both hands to squash the top down (and shaking the bottle regularly) helped a lot.

On a dry sock, the spray beads up a bit and is very "splashy" and airbrush-y, it's neat. I think it'd be really cool mixed with other surface design, like painting or stamping. Or . . . GLOW IN THE DARK DYE.

There's a faint colour to the glow in the dark dye (I'm pointing at it in the second half of the image above), but it's pretty subtle. It sort of blended into the Mint dye, so it's not very noticeable, which is rad. Surprise glow is the best glow. In later testing it seems like going super heavy on your spray by spraying close and several times makes for a better glowing shape.

Once I got one side looking how I wanted, it was time for the next! Having the cardboard inside made it very easy to flip and to hold by the edge so I could line up the splashes of colour. No matter what, you're going to have some "seams" on the sides of what you're spraying, but this helps break it up.

The end result isn't my favourite of the batch, but I am a fan of airbrushing and glow in the dark, so I still like 'em.

Wait, I take back what I said about which is my favourite. Because as soon as the lights are off, these socks ROCK. Please take this blurry, but vividly glowing image as proof of why. It's like proof of Bigfoot's existence, only way more exciting:

DANG! I'm sold.

Spray dye on damp socks

This spray dye says it's particularly good for tie dye, so I knotted and folded up a pair of O Basics and misted them heavily with water. I followed that up with some heavy sprays of Turquoise and hit them again with water, hoping to encourage some colour spread.

The results seem far more subtle than regular tie-dying, as the socks were damp, not wet, so the dye only spread minimally, though misting the water made the edges soften.

The end result is like drifts of clouds, but I personally would stick with a vat or pot for tie dyeing myself, because I prefer long dye times that are easier to achieve when the thing you're dyeing is sitting in the dye, rather than your dye sitting on the thing you're dyeing.

I did try something else rad on this pair, but you gotta wait to the end of the post to really see it.

Spray dye on wet socks

Well, socks, what if we go full-wet? I got a pair of Midcalf Woolies fully soaked and wrung them out thoroughly. I then learned two things.

First, if you're going to work with very wet socks, putting plastic under them will make things a little neater while you're working. I grabbed an old shopping bag, which ended up being perfect because I flipped it after I sprayed one side, so the socks weren't sitting in little puddles of dye.

Second, wet wool sure has a smell I forget about.

I loosely folded the socks sort of accordion-style, to get organic stripes and then liberally spritzed them all over with the Mint dye. Then, using the Turquoise dye I started at the toes, aiming towards the cuffs of the socks, for a sort of gradient.

With this pair I used a "reverse stencil" by laying down a cut out star shape and spraying around it. I super love how this looks and it's partially why this pair is my favourite of the lot.

Also: stripes are the best. And the natural-off white colour of the wool yarn adds a depth to the dye colours I really am digging. Plus, this pair has a little surprise you can probably catch in the images above.

Spray dye on dry nylon stockings

Socks are rad, but when it comes to fine detail their texture keeps things rough. Like RIT, SEI Tumble Dye works across different fibers—from the cotton Extraordinaries and O Basics to the wool Midcalf Woolies. So I knew it'd work great on nylon. Most dyes love nylon. And the super fine and smooth texture of the Opaque Nylon Stockings just begs to be drawn and dyed on!

I went a bit wild with the stencils on this one, but also experimented with drips, not quite by choice (the stencils were getting pretty soggy, but I went with it). The more detailed flower stencil worked like a champ on these stockings!

The finished result is like something a mermaid hippie would be into and that makes me love them.

Tips, treats and wrapping up

Since this has been a more free-form DIY, the various things I noticed trying out this technique get to go here. More than any other surface design technique, spray dye is something you want to keep fiddling with. I'm already eyeballing one pair to hit with the spray again once I've typed this all up.

Lay flat to dry, for real

The instructions on the dye mention that hanging what you've dyed will encourage the dye to bleed downward. If that's not your jam, then lay everything flat to dry on a fresh surface of newspaper. Once everything is nice and dry, put them in the dryer for 20 minutes to heat set the colour.

Sturdier stencils, seriously

I thought I was being all wise, using mid-weight card stock for my stencils. Well, dampness laughs at such hubris. I recommend not using anything less sturdy than a file folder and maybe having a couple of each stenciled shape, so you can swap when they get over-damp. This is a stencil only one pair of socks in, already buckling under the wet.

I also recommend having rags or paper towels on hand to blot your stencils and wipe your hands. Dye will pool and build up on your stencils, making things a little risky when you remove them from your socks.

Watch those wrinkles!

If you're going for a smooth or more patterned look, really use a piece of cardboard inside the sock and make sure everything is nice and flat before you start spraying. The overall look of spray dye is sort of free form; but getting slashes of the sock's colour in the middle of a dyed area, because you forgot to smooth things out, might not be something you want. I still think the stockings this happened to me on look awesome, luckily.

GLITTER!!!

Astute readers may have noticed I mentioned glitter spray dye in my list up at the top and then never mentioned it again. That's because it was 100% the best thing about the spray dyes and I wanted to show off the sparkles. Even as it was making an epic mess on my workspace (they spray much more enthusiastically than the regular dyes), it was beautiful and shimmery.

It's not a heavy sparkle, but what it does do is add a fairy dusting to whatever you're spraying. It took everything in me not to coat all the socks with glitter dye. I did happily get the stockings and the wool socks with it (silver and gold, respectively) and I'm thrilled.

Heads up: we did notice the be-glittered socks shed a little bit of their shimmer onto our hands, but we're not sure what the long term lifespan of the glitter is for these.

Go forth and spray dye!

Like a lot of more free-form dye techniques, spray dye offers a lot of possibility and rewards experimentation. If you've been wanting to play with dye but don't want to mess with the vats and buckets and dipping and dunking, spray dye is a fun and accessible way to spice things up with a little colour. Test and try and keep playing and you'll end up with a pair of socks you love that you made look that awesome!

#DIY #spray dye #tutorial #socks #dye #stars #hearts #so fancy #do it yourself

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notdeadjack · 7 years ago

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How do i take care od my shoes so they last?

CARING FOR YOUR SHOES 101

source: me. i'm a reparative cobbler. i literally do this for a living.ok so you have a pair of shoes of decent quality that fits (or crappy quality shoes that you wanna eek out every last bit of mileage out of in pure spite) and now you have to care for them like a doting parent, but how the fuck are you supposed to do that?? it's not as much of a production as most online how-to's makes it seem:

regular leather: if you're a dirty bitch or one of them people who likes running around in mud for no real reason, remove the excess dirt with a cloth or a soft brush. only use a little water as a last resort. if there's only regular dust and wear, just give them a quick wipe down with a cloth or something idk.apply a thin layer of cream shoe polish (Saphir creme surfine/deluxe is an excellent shoe polish and i highly recommend it. use incolore which has no colour pigments if you can't find the right shade, the shoes have multiple colours or a patina that you wanna keep or if they're brand spanking new and haven't lost any colour). allow it to dry in for like ten minutes before you polish with a cotton cloth (or an old t-shirt or a sock. it's not that important really).

suede/nubuck: remove dust and dirt gently with a suede brush (or one of them nail brushes), spray with waterproofing spray. done. use spray with colour pigments if they look sad and faded.

do these simple steps as often as you can stand, but try to do it at the very least once a month, preferably every other week. you can never do it too often tbh.

more shoe care tips, materials and products underneath the cut!

other materials:

spray textile with waterproofing spray. won't actually proof anything but will makes them easier to keep clean.

syntethic materials won’t accept any help from no shoe care products and will crack or break whenever it damn well feel like it. you can put shoe polish on the fake leather tho, just to make them look nice.

patent leather and such won't absorb any products cause the leather is covered with a thin layer of plastic, but there's special products for keeping them clean and shiny. a moist cloth tends to leave spots bc mineral residues and stuff in the water. do NOT use sour milk or other dairy products on your patent leather

white rubber soles can be maintained by simply wiping them off with a moist cloth when you get home. if really dirty, wash or take to a cobbler to wash.

rubber boots can do with some grease or oil tbh. will help prevent them from drying out.

oiled leather/nubuck tho. there's special products for these. check the labels but grease or oil spray usually does the trick.

but what about all the other stuff? like, the grease/fat/oil, the waterproofing, the washing and The Removal of The Laces™ that all the how-to's talk about?honestly, those things are often excessive and here's why:

washing: unless your shoes are actually dirty (partied too hard and spilled a drink or olive oil on them, large amounts of mud that can't be wiped off, water or salt stains etc), you don't have to wash them. water isn't good for the leather, dries it out so... only do it if you absolutely have to? preferably, take them to a professional and have them do it.

leather grease/fat/oil: honestly, this stuff IS good for the leather and you should use it. but there is such a thing as too much and y'all have no idea how many times i've had to wash a pair of shoes because the owner used too much too often and now there's clogging and fat and dust piled up at the seams like an abandoned butter factory and the shoes just look miserable. apply a thin layer and allow to dry before you apply shoe polish a few times a year. before and after putting your shoes into storage for the season, if they look and feel dry or if you wear them year round, put some on every other or third month. always BEFORE the polish.

waterproofing aka the thing every single shoe store employee tells you to do and it makes me wanna scream every time i hear it: only necessary for suede and nubuck shoes (and usable on textile, as mentioned above). seriously.

a)waterproofing your shoes won't actually make them waterproof, will only help suede to repel the stray water droplet so that it doesn't soak in. won’t help when it’s pouring down.b) proper shoe polish contains wax (is what makes shine when polished) that will protect the leather from water in the same way. adding the spray on top of that is pointless.c) can actually ruin your polish work, make it all matte and occasionally even leave stains, discolour or trap dust.d) is sold as a “fix all” for lazy people to use on all of their shoes regardless of material. fixes nothing. don’t bother unless suede.

removing the laces before polishing: ??? you don't have to? you can work around them. i mean, if you're doing a full care with grease and stuff, it might be easier to remove them but that's up to you. you might get some polish on them but unless you have light or brightly coloured laces it doesn’t hurt them. do exchange them if they break tho. (if they break easily, there might be a sharp edge that rubs at them or, and this is the most likely, you don't unlace properly before forcing your feet into your shoes. the laces take a lot of stress, be nice to them!)

other shoe care products:

wax: such as Kiwi Parade Gloss, Saphir Mirror Gloss etc. a hard-ish bit of wax product that comes in a flat tin. is used to acquire high shine on leather shoes (think spit shine). doesn't actually do that much for the shoe except shine and repel some water. a must for dress shoes but should preferably only be used on the toe cap since it can build up in seams and, if applied the bits that moves a lot, can "crack". it's not damaging to the leather but looks scruffy af. apply with one of them tiny brushes you see in shoe care stores or with a sponge/cloth. polish with a cloth, lamb wool polish glove or a horse hair brush.

fisherman grease: are you a fisherman? no? then don't use it.

quick shine or self shine: do not. contains silicone and shit that won't be absorbed by the leather and won't dry. looks amazing when fresh but will attract dust and turn matte within minutes. shit product designed to appeal to your laziness and take your money while giving you a false sense of accomplishment. seriously, if you're good with the shoe polish, all you need is a a quick rub with a cloth (or the sleeve of your shirt, back of your pant leg) to revive the shine. yes i am a little bitter about the existence of quick shine products,

mink oil: mostly used by old people and hipsters who buy into the whole "the old way is the best way". i highly advice you not to. mink oil is too good at keeping the leather soft. can easily make your shoe leather yucky soft and floppy, the shoe loses shape and turn into a sad, sagging lump. can also discolour the leather (usually into an unsightly green). only use a little if the shoe is drier than the sahara desert.

leather balm/renovateur: technically not the same but has the same usage area. generally too light for shoes but is excellent for other leather goods like jackets, bags and gloves. used the same as shoe polish: apply thin layer, let dry, polish with cloth. redo as often as you can be arsed but at least once or twice a year i mean come on, give your favourite leather bag or jacket some love!

shoe trees: please? do use. preferably made out of cedar. can be expensive but will last you a life time. they will absorb the moisture from your shoes after wear and help them retain their shape (see those creases right at the bend behind your toes? yeah, those will always show up but shoe trees will help minimize them). you can get buy with just one pair, just stick them into which ever pair you wore last. it's highly recommended that you let your shoes dry completely and rest between each use. having two pairs of shoes that you alternate between is good enough.

if you're gonna store your shoes and can't afford buying shoe trees to all your pairs, you can just stuff them with paper or bits of a foam mattress or something, just to help them keep their shape. the ones that has a metal spring in the middle and a ball at the end should be used with caution and only for a day or so at the time, since the spring loaded ball (heh) puts constant pressure on the back piece of the shoe and can actually push it out which is bad and also ugly.oh! and if your knee high boots have zippers, do make sure that zipper is straight when not worn. use a boot tree, a rolled up news paper or a stick a plastic bottle in them. just so that they don’t fold over and put stress on the zipper.

shoe deodorizer: if your shoes are leather with a leather lining and leather inner sole (AND YOU WEAR SOCKS! seriously, please always wear socks or hose or something inside your shoes at all times. or your foot sweat, dead skin and dirt will build up inside your shoes and it is Gross™), they honestly won't smell much at all. deo is unnecessary (unless you have some kind of affliction which makes your foot sweat super powered, which some people actually have and i feel for them). synthetic and fabric shoes are satan when it comes to foot odour and all you can do really is make sure to wear clean socks and change the inner sole as often as possible.

the washing machine: PLEASE. DO NOT PUT YOUR SHOES IN THE WASHING MACHINE! no, not even your converse hi-tops. seriously. all shoes are glued more or less excessively, and the heat and water will make the glue unstick and your shoes will fall apart quicker. take them to a cobbler for a wash if they're really dirty.

and finally: inspect your shoes. if you spot a seam coming out, or the sole unsticking on the inner left or the heel piece is worn down: take them to a reparative cobbler asap. do NOT try to fix it yourself (you can actually make them ten times harder or even impossible to fix). most things that breaks on leather products can actually be fixed, but the longer you let it go without addressing the damage, the worse it will get and the more expensive it will be to fix. expect to spend about half the purchase price on maintaining your shoes at a cobbler. more if they're your favourites and fit like a dream.

do try to find a good cobbler, some are absolute hacks that can ruin your shoes. if you live in a big city, go to the finer parts of town and accost a rich person and ask what cobbler shop they go to. they usually have a favourite cobbler that they remain loyal to/cling to desperately. instagram and/or facebook can also be a good place to check.

craftsmen in europe has journeyman or master "letters" (basically diplomas) that they can only acquire after they've worked in the profession for a certain amount of time and can prove that they're skilled in various parts of the job. you can ask if they have one and if they do, they're probably not completely unskilled.

rule of thumb is if the cobbler also does dry cleaning, seamstress work, plumbing and a hundred other vaguely connected things, chance is high that they aren't as good. this is largely dependent on country tho so... use your common sense.

also, don't bother with chains (such as mr minit) and those that offer quick jobs. doing a job properly takes time and care. rushing generally leads to lower quality work, as with everything. it’s up to you tho.

aaand i think that's about it!

i'll post a guide on how to buy good quality shoes that fit later, but until then, if you have any further questions, or want specific shoe or leather care advice my ask is always open and i'm happy to help :D

#shoe care 101 #ask the cobbler #Anonymous

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geek-and-nerd-are-not-the-same · 4 years ago

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“By rachel in CraftFashion A bra is a bit more advanced project, but it's not as hard as you might think, and by no means out of the reach of someone with moderate sewing skills. If you're willing to put in a little time on adjusting the pattern, you can end up with a bra that fits you exactly, which all too few commercial ones can do! Step 1: Tools and Materials Materials: fabric with at least a side-to-side stretch asymmetrical lingerie elastic for edging strap elastic underwires hooks & eyes a little knit interfacing optionally, stretch lace for decoration optionally, ribbon for decorative bows optionally, plastic hardware for adjusting the straps - but I leave this out b/c I can make the straps the exact right length without need for adjustments! You can buy underwires in some fabric stores or online, but if you have some old bras that need to be tossed out, reclaim the underwires from them first. Do your best to get an underwire of the correct size (hold it up under your breast and check that it fits snugly but without poking into your breast). They can be bent a little bit but they're actually made of flat metal in a U shape, not round wire, so as to hold shape better. Step 2: Pattern Bra patterns do exist for purchase, but I made a pattern from an existing bra. Some of the pieces were traceable, but the cup pieces weren't because of the underwires (I did not want to ruin the original by taking the underwires out). So my pattern was approximate, and I did make a test bra and revise the pattern according to how it fit. There are four pattern pieces: upper cup lower cup side/back front stay The important things about the pattern are a) how the cup pieces fit together, b) the lines of stretch, and c) some edges need seam allowances and some do not. Your fabric will almost certainly be stretchier in one direction than in the 90 degree direction; the stretchiest direction should go up and down on the cup pieces and the front stay, but sideways on the side/back pieces. Check out the pictures for the stretch direction markings. The cup pieces need seam allowance except for the top of the upper cup (you have a couple options there, see the Cups step). The side/back piece only needs seam allowance at the edge that attaches to the cups, as the rest of the edges will be finished with elastic. I'm not adding the bra pattern here because it will almost certainly not fit you, you'll have to do a bunch of alteration on it anyway and it's really hardly any more work to trace it from an existing bra that you know fits (or know exactly how it could fit better). Step 3: More on Adjusting the Pattern I made 1 partial bra and 1 additional complete bra while working out the pattern. The green one in the pic below is totally wearable although the elastic is so curly it looks really odd laid out flat. There are any number of possible adjustments to make but the most common are these: cup shape, which can be adjusted by changing the curve of the top of the cup lower piece. A small adjustment here goes a long way so change an eighth of an inch at a time, and make sure to smooth out the lines well. If you have to make a lot of change here you'll probably also need to adjust the cup upper as well, making it slightly longer or shorter to accommodate the difference in length of the lower cup edge. center stay. May need to be shorter or longer, depending on how widely placed your breasts are. You may also find that changing the angle of the sides gets you a better fit, either straighter or more flat of a triangle. cup top edge - I found I wanted my bras to be slightly less than full coverage, so I lowered the outside edge of the cup (but not the inside edge). This also meant I had to make the straps longer to make up for it. side/back too short or too long. Make adjustments to this piece in the underarm area. Step 4: Cut Cut out the pieces, 2 of each. Remember to lay out the stretch lines as you marked them on the stretchiest direction of fabric. Also I cut the center stay on a fold to eliminate one seam; the stretch line on the stay is up & down not side to side. If you have a very stretchy fabric you might even want to interface the stay or line it with another non-stretchy fabric for stability. Step 5: Cups Sew the two cup pieces together along the middle, making sure they are oriented correctly with respect to each other. Topstitch; you may line the back of this seam if you want, like if your fabric is very fine. Finish the top edge of the cup in any way you want. Here I added a stretch lace piece, but you can also use a piece of lingerie elastic, or if you think ahead you can cut two upper pieces and self-face the edge. In that case you probably want to do the edge seam first and then sew both upper pieces together to the lower piece. If you put on stretch lace like I did, it will probably be easier to sew it on before sewing the cup seam! You want the lace to be a little smaller than the cup (it stretches after all). Place it with the lace edge along the top edge of the upper cup piece, and sew it on with a small zigzag stitch. Finally trim the original fabric piece out from under the lace -- or leave it if you like the overlay look! Step 6: Center Stay Sew the stay together at the top (and bottom if you didn't cut it on a fold) and turn it right side out. Pin it to the inside of the cups, matching the top edges. Sew a little less than a quarter inch seam allowance, as the underwire channels will be the full quarter inch. Step 7: Sides With the old bra on, hold up your elastic from the underwire edge around your back to the other cup edge. Pull it to a reasonable tightness. This will give you twice the length of elastic you need for the bottom of the side panels. Pin the end and the middle to get the length for each side, and attach it to the side pieces. (If the elastic isn't an inch or two shorter than the side panel, recheck the elastic measurement and the side piece pattern, as one of them is wrong). The sewing technique for attaching lingerie elastic is explained in my Panties instructable, in the step about the leg elastic. Next, sew the sides to the cups, matching top edges, similar to how you sewed the center front stay, a bit less than a quarter inch seam allowance. Step 8: Underwires Cut two strips of interfacing, the length of your cups' bottom edge and an inch wide. Fold one in half lengthwise (if you had to use iron-on, make sure the glue is folded inside) and pin it around the bottom edge of a cup, edges out. Place it over the front stay and side piece, leaving a bit of room next to the seam allowance, as in the picture. Stitch the channel down using a quarter inch seam allowance to the edge of the bra cup. The previous stitching lines shouldn't show at all. Now fold and wrap the underwire channel around to the inside of the bra cup, releasing the stay and the side piece. It should rest a little more than a quarter of an inch inside the cup, and cover all the raw edges. Stitch this in place close to the folded edge of the channel. Stitch a bar tack across the end of the channel by the center front stay, so the underwires don't come out. Now insert the underwires from the outside edge by just sliding them in the channel you made. The underwires are not symmetrical; there's a shorter end and a longer end although sometimes the difference is small. The longer end goes at the outside edge. Step 9: Side Elastic and Straps Determine the correct length of elastic to run from the bra back, around your sides on top of the side piece, up to the top of the cup, by trial and error: first hold a piece so it seems right while wearing your original bra. Write down the length and try sewing it; you can pick it out and adjust if necessary (or if you're working on the practice one you don't need to bother fixing it). Once the side elastic is on, figure out the strap elastic length. Stitch one end of the strap elastic to each of the remaining back edges without elastic. Now you can pin the bra on yourself and determine how long the straps need to be. Stitch the strap to the cup, right sides together, where you marked. Cut the elastic if you haven't yet, and fold up the strap so you can stitch the cut end down in a zigzag like in the last picture, to keep it tidy. I didn't think to do this, but if you have an old bra that's worn out but the straps or strap hardware is still good, you could reuse those parts. Step 10: Hooks & Eyes You can use a bra back extender instead which some fabric stores sell, or sew on hooks & eyes yourself. I ended up using a wide single hook & bar, instead of a pair of small hooks & eyes as is usual because I got lazy. But it works fine. First cover the raw ends with something soft - a scrap of T-shirt fabric works great. I simply cut a square, stitch one end to the right side of the bra ends, fold the sides under, and topstitch them down. Then just sew the hook & eye down, by hand or by machine, making sure there's enough tail on the eye end that the hook won't scratch your back when you wear it.” I have a weird sense of “cheap af” and laziness. So though I know it’ll cost me much more to get all the materials I need to make it myself, I just don’t wanna spend money and energy on buying a stupid bra. And I know it’s going to take so much more energy to make the dang thing, but I haaaaaaaaate going to the store and trying the stupid shit on. I’d much rather just know it fits me bc it’s made based off another bra that feels super comfortable. So yeah, I might regret this but I wanna learn how to make bras.

#How to #tutorial #make it yourself #diy #bra #bras

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