Improvised food/beverage warmer

Posted on December 26, 2020 by Kathy
  • Tea candle holder under tea pot/kettle
  • Boiling water for tea on Svea camping stove

With the recent six hour power outage was thinking of having alternates to the Svea stove, which works well but needs to be used outdoors.
That is a long time to go without brewing tea.

While I was browsing some rather pricey tetsubin warmers and electric mug warmers, thought I had enough parts on hand to construct my own.

  • stainless steel bowl
  • cooking rack for Instant Pot
  • aluminum tea pot
  • tea light candle

Looks like a tea candle will work for warming but need higher heat for boiling or cooking.

  • Ceramic mug on improvised warmer
Posted in General | Comments Off on Improvised food/beverage warmer

Masks for pandemic

Posted on September 17, 2020 by Kathy
floral print face mask
sewing machine

I have been using my 1960s vintage sewing machine to make Olsen style face masks.

I had a lot of white muslin from other projects for liners. After cutting into a couple reusable totes for an inner layer, remembered I had a huge sheet of non-woven polypropylene that came wrapped around a memory foam mattress pad.

I have bought a few pieces of quiltng cotton for the outer layer, but used a lot of remnants too.

I started out using t-shirt yarn for ties, then invested in a set of bias tape makers so am now making matching ties.

completed masks on hanger
Posted in General | Tagged , , | Comments Off on Masks for pandemic

Still life with blender

Posted on July 29, 2019 by Kathy
NutriBullet 600 blender with smoothie ingredients
Summer breakfast smoothie ready to buzz

I had been using a prep blender for making smoothies. It works well for pureéing soups in my Instant Pot but I was getting splatter and a bit concerned that chopping ice was asking a bit much of it.

Decided to put a birthday gift certificate toward buying a NutriBullet high speed blender. It has been interesting trying recipes from the web as well as experimenting.

Smoothies can be used for bulking up as well as dieting to lose weight. It has been a struggle to keep at 120 lbs (54 kg, 8.6 stone). I thought I had escaped major illness this past winter, but ended up going to the ER with bronchitis the last week of May. Recovery has been slow, especially since I dropped to 113 lb. I decided to try adding extra nutrition in the form of smoothies. This was especially attractive in the summer with local fruits coming into season.

Pictured is this morning’s breakfast smoothie:

  • Parsley (grown in a pot by my front door)
  • Baby spinach
  • Yoghurt (my own made with whole milk and half & half)
  • Frozen banana chunks 
  • Frozen red grapes
  • Orange juice
Posted in Cooking, Photos | Tagged , , | Comments Off on Still life with blender

Canon Powershot SX530 HS to iPad gen 6

Posted on December 19, 2018 by Kathy

Toad on stones

So many devices, so little time!

I am using Safari to post this from my iPad after connecting it to the camera using the Canon app I downloaded from the App Store. I have been transferring images from the PowerShot with a USB cable to my MacBook Air, using Graphic Converter or Photos.

It seems to work OK, only drawback is having to cut the internet connection to connect the camera WiFi.

Looks like the app lets you control the camera too. Going to try that, might be a way to make up for the tremor.

Still holding off on WordPress 5 and MacOS Mojave updates.

Posted in Photos, Technical | 1 Comment

Iris

Posted on June 4, 2018 by Kathy

Part of this morning’s mission at my father’s house was to check the stream for a deer carcass. Instead I found some lovely yellow iris blooming. Sometimes it is good to not find what you seek. LOL

Iris along stream

Stream and iris plants

Iris plants along stream with trees in background.

Photos from my iPhone

Posted in General, Photos | Comments Off on Iris