US meets UK

In case Nick or I disappear you know where to look.

I’ve been trying to figure out depth of field and aperture with my dSLR.  Here is a tip-I don’t recommend practicing on moving objects.

Especially chickens.

Especially chickens that you just gave your jam making scraps to. They are too excited to pose.

Except for Rhoda.

Because she’s a natural chicken model.

It’s the D’orsay first anniversary, as far as anniversaries go the 1st is a great one to celebrate but the whole paper thing? Well, it had me pondering for a bit. I know I don’t have to follow traditions, but I like having a theme as it narrows the field for decision making.

First up? A calendar modified from YHL’s template (thanks to Mrs. Bunny for modifying it for me)! Sadly, it was a struggle to come up with 12 quotes that would fit/look nice/have meaning. At first I had 12 quotes all from Superbad (long story) but figured while funny it wouldn’t be a very romantic gift. I sourced from our favorite movies, past emails and ceremony music for the final quotes.

(YHL version)

Mr. D is into typography, design and he has a penchant for vintage design so when the travel book store near my office closed for business I popped in to say goodbye and to peek around. I found this deserted lonely transit map book and snapped it up!

(clearly from Amazon)

The last paper related gift is the book of..um… childish adult drawings from the movie Superbad (again, long story).

(Amazon)

So perhaps only 1/3 of these gifts will work for your first anniversary. I had also considered framing maps of our hometowns… but I had a really difficult time finding Mr.D’s village on a map that made sense. What are your favorite paper related gifts?

I do. Big time.

Today for Baltimore there is a Groupon for our rehearsal dinner restaurant! Whoo hoo!

You can chow down on Fish n Chips, Kobe Burgers and lobster mac n cheese. mmmmmm. Oh and the cake. Get the cake. It’s chocolate cake, real whipped cream, praline, and ganache. yes.

So, purchase the groupon, visit the restaurant and chow down!

Perhaps you’ve heard of Glenn Beck and Sarah Palin’s DC Tea Party? No? Perhaps you’ve heard of the hilarious post regarding where is safe/unsafe and what to do in DC?

My personal favroite part of this is the list of items and actions they are hoping to restrict. I did not however, see pitchfork listed-so expect to see many of those.

Prohibited Items
DO NOT BRING ANY SORT OF WEAPON, INCLUDING A POCKET KNIFE

• Tents/canopies/structures
• Glass containers
• Alcoholic beverages
• Firearms (real or simulated)
• Ammunition
• Explosives or incendiary devices of any kind (including fireworks)
• Knives, blades, or sharp objects of any length
• No staking of grounds
• No digging or trenching
• No attachments to existing landscaping
• No firearms or explosive devices, no open fires

It’s good they included this though, because I was planning on digging a trench.

I hope these Tea Baggers asking for representation will head on over and demonstrate with DC vote for those who ACTUALLY don’t have voting power.  I’ll be out of town with first anniversary festivities partially celebrating, partially avoiding the crazies after my last visit to a Tea Bagger rally.

Yeah. Oh Yeah… I sang that song and danced around the kitchen while making jam. While trying to link the song, I found this video! It’s like it was made for me. My friend was probably thinking “why did I invite her for jam making”?

My friend Kristen and I have been inspired to try canning as a way of preserving our summer bounty. But, since it never seems to workout that enough of a bounty is ripe at one time we sought out other people’s fruits to can. First stop? Olney Farmer’s Market. When I mentioned to a sweet vendor that we were canning, she directed me over to the “seconds” area-where peaches with issues and bruises were half price!

Afterwards we headed over to Blueberry Gardens (near Olney/Spencerville) to hand pick our own. For the privilege of picking our own, we paid $8 per quart. It was fun to figure out which blueberries were the ripest (one for me, one for my basket…) and chat as we picked through the bushes. Neither Kristen or I have had much success with growing blueberries, so I’m glad we went to the professionals.

We may have picked too many…

Our utensils? Ball Canning accessories – not necessary, but very helpful! A large pot, jars, and a creatively fashioned “rack” out of aluminum foil to prevent the glass from sitting directly on the bottom of the pot. I can really see how having a proper rack to pull the jars out would be easier.

We got started on our jam making using a recipe for Natural Summer Fruit Jam from the Ball cookbook. We decided to go with the “less sugar” kind which uses apples to increase volume and decrease added sugar. Creation the apple sauce was easy… until we needed to push it through a sieve. Not so easy and very time consuming.

We still ended up using 2 cups of sugar for the blueberries and a whopping 5.5 cups for the peaches!

The book says to get the jam to 220 Fahrenheit- but we just couldn’t get it there. What I later learned from Food in Jars is that our jam would have a difficult time reaching that temperature with the reduced sugar. We over reduced the blueberry jam to a super duper thick amount that ended up only filling 2 jars and a little bowl. This batch should have filled 5 jars. The blueberry jam was so good though, that we reduced ourselves to eating it by the spoonful.

We instead used the gel test method for the peach jam-way more successful.

Our Jam canning was a complete success-save for one lid that didn’t properly seal right away. We tested the seals too quickly post cool down, and accidentally popped one off. We probably should have left the jars alone for longer to give it a chance to seal-but we were so excited!

But that’s okay-because that is the jam I’m eating today!

ETA: Live near DC and interested in canning? Common Good City Farm is offering a canning workshop on September 11th. Check it out!

Remember when I threw my hat into the ring asking about dream jobs with Mighty Goods/Haus? Staircase Ventures replied! They asked me to do 3 brief product write ups and I’m sharing them with you. I tried to capture the essence of why I always read Mighty Haus religiously: great finds with a hint of humor.

Tocky

($79) Clocky is jealous of his hipper, more annoying younger brother.

Alternate: Because there aren’t enough rolling, beeping things about the morning.

Alternate: Alarm clocks that escape, and only snooze once? The horror!

Book Book

($79) Now that we’ve replaced books with laptops, it’s nice to make laptops look like books again.

Bottle Opening Ring (BeerRing)

($20) You look like the type of person that needs to open bottles ‘on the go’

Have you found any great goods lately?

I actually sent this to a company…

Hello, I see that you might be offering dream jobs… could you let me know what types of dream jobs are available? Additionally could you let me know if these dream jobs come with specific location requirements? Thank you!

yours, Christiana

To be fair.. this was the listing and I couldn’t find further information about available positions with Staircase Ventures. ce la vie!

I’m off to San Diego for work, so posting may be lighter. Nick is coming with me, and he was plenty irked when I told him he might want to bring jeans in addition to shorts.

“WHAT?!?! But California is HOT, it’s like, beach town USA, it’s hotter than DC!!”

was his response. I told him to check the weather, and he was a bit bummed to see that highs were in the upper 60′s. I think it’ll be a nice break from this oppressive DC summer.

Well, not exactly, you’ll really be sewing along with these three lovely ladies.  Remember the birthday post? I was still undecided-until a friend passed along this course.

Decision made. Sewing machine ordered. Sewing machine delivered. Signed up for above class. The projects seem super neat and I can’t wait to get started!

Won’t you join me?

ps. posting has been light because I can’t find my computer/camera cords! i have all these posts about jam making and canning and pie and blueberry picking… with no photos. sigh.