Update: Cardamom is not your friend.

I just pulled the pumpkin bread out of the oven--the hot water isn't nearly hot enough for my bath, which I like at scalding temperatures to counteract the effing freezing bathroom brought on by the Israeli winter and total lack of insulation in Jerusalem apartment buildings--and point is, I over-cardamom-ized. It's nice, but it's got a slightly dirty/ soapy aftertaste that the chocolate isn't canceling out like it should.

Maybe it has something to do with the fact that I never measure, owing to a total lack of supplies beyond a 2-cup liquid measurement doo-hickey and a spatula, newly purchased last week. I once had a lovely, well-stocked kosher kitchen, with a food processor! and yet now I'm so used to eyeballing that mistakes like hyperspicy dessert breads don't usually happen. Ah well, I'll just pimp it like it was s'posed to be that way, y'all.

In Which I Start Things Off...

Hey! Welcome to my first post! Pull on a cosy sweater, a nice mug of tea, and perhaps a muffin. That sounds more like an intro from Bob Ross Quilts but, I promise, it gets better. Or something. It definitely gets something.

Right now:

--I'm wearing last night's dress (still at 2:30; okay, fine, it's a comfy jersey dress that's really just pj's dressed up, but still, girl!); my Earth shoes that I slipped on just to keep my feet off the freezing linoleum, a vintage 80's sweater that's an odd salmon shade with puffy sleeves and big gold buttons; a handknitted turquoise headband I made last winter; a lavendar pashmina; my only-on-weekends glasses. I am *hotttt*, yo. And oddly, still single. Go figure.

--I'm making white chocolate/ dark chocolate spiced pumpkin bread for Shabbat dinner, and cramming down vegan spinach patties for lunch. I make the good stuff for other people, I guess. And that shiznit is gooooood, y'all. The white chocolate melts and makes it all gooey, and makes the spicy-ness warm and creamy and soft. Lovely.

--Also making up some custom orders for jess and bird, which sounds so lovely and more official than it is. (Although plans for the future, yo! Etsy shop coming up once I get a fixed address in the States; I don't want to have to ship from Israel. And craft bazaars--although I'm planning on sharing a table with another crafty friend to make the table rental fees less scary...)

Made these today:

Arava, mother of pearl and yellow iridescent glass beads:











And Carmella, from a thrifted and now reused bracelet kindly sent to me in a flickr swap:











Aaah! Blogger I will conquer you! I will! (And that's a dorky shoutout to the A&E version of Pride and Prejudice, when Crush of the Century Colin Firth is fencing and all sweaty and hotttt and stuff.)

And now it's time for a nice pre-Shabbat bath, I think. So peace to all and happy making stuff!