Friday Update August 21st, 2020: Finished a Project, Now I’m Running Away to Live on an Island by Myself
Ok but seriously, how on earth did we get this far into August? I do not know at all how that happened. The new school year is nearly upon us, which means I need to do some serious focusing on my dissertation soon. Luckily, I’m able to work on it remotely. I honestly do not know what I would do if I had to move back to Minnesota right now!
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Goings On
I finished an embroidery piece! I started this project after watching the course “Creation of Embroidered Portraits” by @bugambilo on Domestika. I used a mix of her techniques and winging it and I’m pretty happy with the way it turned out. It was soooo satisfying when I finally found the right material to do the plum skin. I tried a lot of options, but The Thread Gatherer’s Silken Pearl in SP5 241 Fading Ink was the winner by far. I’ve got more details on my IG post.
I’m still not in my office. We’ve still got guests which means I still can’t work from my office. On the one hand, my bedroom does have much better light. The two big windows are great. However, it is a pain to keep everything put away all the time. I have to be really careful or the cats will get into everything!
Reading
Circe by Madeline Miller. Reading this book made me want to run off to an island and spend all my time gardening and playing with plants. The book follows the character of Circe, a witch and minor goddess from Greek mythology, throughout her life. The story intersects with other, better known myths, mainly the Odyssey, but the focus is always on the title character. I loved how intimate the writing was. It felt like I was sitting there as Circe was telling me her story. I’ve been seeing this book pop up everywhere lately and all I can do is add myself to the chorus of people recommending it! Purchase Circe Amazon/Bookshop.
Watching
60 second Cities: Taipei. I’m generally kind of ambivalent about travel. I mean, I have a bucket list of places I want to go, but I generally prefer the comforts of home. However, this new series of short, choose your own adventure travel videos totally makes me want to go traveling. The Taipei video in particular convinced me to add it to my travel wish list. Watch/play on eko.com.
Recipe
Shockingly Easy No Knead Focaccia. This is exactly as the title promises, a super easy recipe for making that wonderful olive oil infused bread, focaccia. You start it the night before, then have a few quick steps in the morning. If you time it right, it’s easily ready by lunch. I did, however, make a few tweaks to the recipe. I reduced the oil in step 3 in half, to two tablespoons and was generally lighter on the oil in the next few steps. I added chopped rosemary right before I dimpled it in step 5 and skipped the garlic butter altogether. I also found it benefitted from being a little on the darker side and kept it in the oven closer to 30 minutes. Eventually, I’ll write this all up and do a blog post. Until then, you can see the original recipe at Bon Appetite.